8:57 pm ET
Dec 27, 2011


In Iowa, Attacking Joe Biden and Appealing to Illinois Voters

    • America Needs Ron Paul.




      America Needs Ron Paul.

      That sounds like Romney talking about himself.

    • Tax returns please?

    • I don't think I have ever fully lost respect for someone whom I will probably end up holding my nose and voting for, but it is happening with Romney. It is fortunate the GOP primaries are taking as long as they are; we get to know the candidates. When I once thought of Romney as a "electable" candidate running against the strength of Obama's ground game, I now consider him a laughable baffoon. Where Biden makes an intelligent argument, Romney simply answers like a high school sophomore.


      Gingrich said he couldn't vote for Ron Paul if he were to become the GOP nominee and called the Texas congressman's views "totally outside the mainstream of every decent American."

      In the same interview on CNN, Gingrich also offered a testy rebuke to Mitt Romney, saying that if Romney wants to run a negative campaign attacking Gingrich he should at least be "man enough to own it."


      Looks like VP Biden is right and his article is a well presented set of policy points.

      Romney’s rebuttal is a low road attack with ad-hominem references and negative political campaign.

      Red meat for the extreme right, no policy details.

      Reproachable republican

    • Obama and Biden have released their tax returns, as has every nominee – of both parties – for the last 30-plus years.

      Is little Lord Mitt afraid to be embarrassed when voters learn his tax rate is lower than his chauffeur or personal valet?

    • Rather than offering a plan to restore economic security for the middle class, Mitt Romney would settle for an economy where fewer Americans succeed no matter how hard they work," . "Governor Romney didn’t learn the lessons of the economic crisis – instead, he has proposed a return to the same policies that caused it, letting Wall Street write its own rules again and making middle class families pay for tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. While President Obama is fighting for an economy that rewards hard work and responsibility and provides every American with a fair shake, Mitt Romney believes in skewing the playing field toward those at the top while leaving Americans facing a challenge on their own.”


    • With Obama fighting to cut taxes, who needs a Republican in the White House?

    • The liberal trolls are out in full force, continually elevating Ron Paul in order to spur his third party candidacy - and he's enough of an egotist to do so. And we've got the same, lame, nagging whimp, who continues to clamor for Romney's tax returns. Romney is the only guy who can beat obama, turn the country around, and you all know it's true. Keep whining. It's really the only thing liberals do with any competency.

    • Obama is fighting to lower taxes? That is so incredibly stupid a comment that only a liberal whackjob would make it. Obama wants a TEMPORARY tax holiday that actually undermines the foundation of social security to continue so he can then raise taxes on everyone. SImple as that - he will let the Bush tax cuts expire. These 10 year cuts were across the board - not for the rich only as most leftist stooges would have us believe. Obama's first three year deficits: $1.5 trillion, $1.4 trillion and $1.2 trillion for a total new debt of over $4.1 trillion. His next year is projected at $1.2 trillion so is his first and hopefully only four year term he will have added $5.3 trillion to the national debt through wasted spending (Cash for clunkers, Solyndra, etc) and giveaways to unions (auto bailout, infrastructure spending, teacher bailout). He did this while increasing Federal spending by 30%. He is taking the nation on the road to becoming Greece. Romney is not perfect, but he will be better thant Obama the Incompetent!

    • Romney: "...the campaigner-in-chief divides Americans, engages in class warfare and resorts to distortion and demagoguing.”

      Any examples?

    • Obama failed, Mitt? How? He did three things YOU failed at. One, he won his Senate race. Two, he won his party's nomination­, against a much more formidable opponent than you had. And Three, he won the general election.

      These are all things you have YET to accomplish­. And, I might add, he did not run for the presidency for six years like you have.

    • @4:46 - You must have become dependant on the nanny/welfare state. Yes Dr. Paul is trying to limit the federal government's scope, but with the intention that states will take the reigns to decide policy for their residents. The Problem with the Civil Rights Act (as good as its intentions are) is that we went from enforcing segregation to enforcing intergration which is reverse-racism. Plus it hasn't done anything to improve race relations in the US. Why can't we all just be free equal individuals without federal intervention?

      The newsletters have already been debunked. Dr. Paul didn't write them and he disavowed their content.

      The progressive establishment is prepping us for transition to the New World Order. This includes crashing our economy, devaluing our currency, and slowly chipping away at our freedoms by starting wars that don't end (Drugs, Terror, etc...) in the name of "national security", all so you sheeple will be more accepting of an even more intrusive government. WAKE UP!

      Ron Paul 2012

    • Ron Paul's new ad likens Romney and Gingrich to "serial hypocrites and flip-floppers.”


      The Washington machine is strangling our economy," a narrator says. "Politicians who supported bailouts and mandates — serial hypocrites and flip-floppers — can't clean up the mess. One man stands alone: A real plan to cut $1 trillion year one, balance the budget in three. Consistent. Incorruptible. Guided by faith and principle. Ron Paul, the one we've been looking for."

    • "The progressive establishment is prepping us for transition to the New World Order."

      This is the kind of lunacy we're up against.

    • I am a Paul supporter because he puts Americans first. NOT Israelis. NOT special interest groups. Not homosexuals, heterosexuals,blacks, latinos or women or anyone else. Everyone is treated equally. No handouts. No favorable tax cuts. No military welfare to countries who can afford to defend themselves. He's the ultimate Ayn Rand candidate, and he even named his son Rand. Don't you see the wisdom in this? Why must the US taxpayer police the world? Why can't we defend our OWN borders. Why can't we live and let live? You make your lifestyle choices, I'll make mine. No legislature to dictate right or wrong. It's a return to liberty, a return to putting America first, and a return to the meritocracy that made this nation great. Anyone other than Ron Paul is a continuance of the status quo, which has proven to be disastrous.

    • Did Romney just accuse someone of being the "campaigner in chief?" Romney!? The same Romney that's been running for something since the first grade? The same Romney that's been running for president since 2006? Say it aint' so.

      No matter how cynical you are, it's impossible to keep up.

    • You've been asked this question on other articles, a simple yes/no question, yet you refuse to answer.

      Do YOU think Romney should release his tax returns?

    • "He’s the ultimate Ayn Rand candidate,"

      aka Social Darwinist

    • Mitt Romney is attacking Joe Biden?

      Strange, I thought he was running for President not for Vice President.

      (He should release his tax returns!)

    • When advertising, remember associations glue together appeal. The dems always have a nice sounding ad at the academy awards, the repubs should do so too; the positive association with the awards is valuable. No this isn't logical argumentation, it is simply good pr theory.

    • Come on Mitt, you are very upper class. You are not middle class, you are not a defender of the middle class. You are a member of the 1% waging war against the rest of us.

      Joe Biden is middle class.

    • "It's a Wonderful Life" 2012 version - Ron Paul jumps off a bridge,right into a loss to Romney in Iowa. Considers what a Romney presidency will be like. Obama gets his wings

    • Mr. Romney began discussing the intricacies of cow milk with Jessica Hebert, an Obama voter who was at the store.
      Mr. Romney delved deeply into the topic, with real curiosity and a barrage of questions, after Ms. Hebert, who has shown dairy cows, explained that a prize animal produced about 100 pounds of milk a day. He began a series of rapid-fire calculations to determine how many gallons are in a pound: “Eight-point-three pounds per gallon. So 8 into 100 is going to be about 13, 14, gallons. Oh, 12 — there you go.”

      Is 12.05 so Mr. Romney is good at division

      Can he also add something to the discussion and bring us together as a nation?

    • A Democratic operative in Iowa mentioned she had been contacted no fewer than four times by Obama for America staffers trying to organize high turnout for the caucuses – yes, Obama is technically on the ballot, but it’s not exactly a make-or-break election day for Democrats.

      Team Obama isn’t competing for turnout to rival the GOP field this time -- or even match Obama’s own showing four years ago -- but they would be happy to best the several thousand votes George W. Bush got there in 2004, campaign staffers say.

      It turns out that Obama’s Chicago-based political operation views the caucuses as a serious organizing tool and dry run for next November — and sees the relative lack of GOP boots on the ground in Iowa as the basis for a they-don’t-care-about-Iowa campaign theme in the 2012 general election.

      Mitt Romney “hasn’t been here much,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Sue Dvorsky in a DNC conference call that covered the kitchen-sink array of anti-Romney attacks — especially his decision to “waltz” into the Hawkeye State after months of staying away.

      Obama will fire up Democratic caucus goers via video link in Iowa next week and local Democrats will organize in every caucus precinct, she said.

      Another motive for the mobilization: To push back against $4 million in anti-Obama ads being run by the former Massachusetts governor and Romney-friendly Super PAC, Restore Our Future.

      “A 4 million ad buy is going to get our attention,” Dvorsky added. “We’re going to push back against that – that’s our job.”

    • Obama is a bust, let's face it. He is inept, ineffective and incompetent. The guy has no vision because he has no firsthand knowledge of anything - except maybe basketball and hands-on Muslim extremist training he got from his father - you know, the guy who had all those dreams?

    • that may be all true in your Bizarro World but not in the real world.

    • 10:30 so apparently it's winning the election that determines the success of the candidate? How about doing the job that he was elected to do? He was elected to the senate but voted present for the majority of votes - except for the vote to raise the debt ceiling during Bush's last term. He voted against that saying it was dangerous and unpatriotic. Can you say hypocrit? Oh and he also voted against the war, calling it stupid. And he voted to close gitmo - in fact he ran his presidential campaign on the issue of closing it. Just as he ran on implementing all those shovel ready infrastructure jobs but then proclaimed 2 years later that there's no such thing as shovel ready jobs. Know why barack? An executive ( hint: that's you) actually needs to implement the initiative. Can you say skill, knowledge and hard work? You're a failure barack and an embarrassment to the United States of America.

    • The Jury is still out about Mr. Obama, what you consider failure the majority of voters consider a success against very difficult odds and recalcitrant opposition. You may not agree with the long list of accomplishments and victories of the President. You never have and you never will. Trying to convince you is an impossibility.

      However, there is no objective argument that can be presented about the obvious failures of Mr. Romney.

    • 9:42 What? The jury is out??? Hahahahaha. No, the jury has found the incumbent guilty - of nonfeasance. It's time for a real president. Watch Romney take charge.

    • Really, Mittens? The vice president presented an articulate and intelligent statement of Romney’s lack of values, and Mitt can only respond as a giggling school girl? I’ll take Biden’s love and respect of America any day; Romney can go back to greedy ways, daily lies, and sending jobs overseas. In fact, Mittens can follow those jobs overseas.

    • LOL, Romney has been acting the part of a giggling school girl peeing all over himself with giddiness.

      Good luck Republicans...you truly need it.

    • Biden is so mentally challenged that he can barely assume his role of vp - a situation which is actually providential in an administration so inept as to make us the laughing stock of the entire world. No one looks to the United States to provide world leadership any longer - an indication of just how far we've fallen. You need only to look at Europe's current crisis and their consistent unwillingness to engage with either barack or timmy in crafting any sort of western solution. The depth of our own government debt is arguably worse than Greece, Italy and the rest of the piigs.

    • Where are Mitt’s tax returns?

    • Who cares about his tax returns? What possible difference does it make.? Unless he cheated, I don't care what he earned or how much he paid in taxes. And you can bet that if he cheated, we'd all know about it since it is an absolute certainty that the has been more closely monitored than school children trying to get their hands on a soda.

    • I'm assuming you'd feel exactly the same way if Obama or Biden refused to release their tax returns.

    • Romney must care about the potential political risks of releasing his tax returns. If he has nothing to hide then he should not hide his tax returns.

      He should also release his long form birth certificate and detailed medical records. A detailed financial disclosure of all the accouts and financial interests of his family members and associates is also required.

      Welcome to the hardball game of politics mormon boy!

    • 1:21 For the last time, ROMNEY DID NOT REFUSE to release his tax returns. Quoting from the Boston Globe, which is a New York Times company and as such, absurdly liberal: 'Mitt Romney said he has no current plans to release his tax returns, but added that he would consider releasing them if he becomes the Republican nominee." Apparently, either the English language escapes you, or you are intent on lying.

    • I'm sure Romney's books are squeaky clean. What he would like to couch as long as he can is the extent of his wealth, any notion that his 5-year campaign for president has been a golden parachute ride, and the immensity of the economic gap between himself and most of the people he would govern.

    • Why not release his tax returns and quit the semantic game-playing. What's he hiding?

    • To the nagging dog with a bone at 5:19: He's not the nominee yet. Have all the other candidates released theirs, including mr obama? Have any of them actually been officially asked or has some intern reporter simply asked a casual question? You must drive your husband nuts.

    • He has said he doesn't intend to release them even AS the nominee. All nominees - from both parties - have released their returns for 30-plus years, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

      All of your name-calling reflects your own insecurity. It's not his income that Romney's embarrassed about, it's the taxes paid on that income, which is assuredly a lower rate than his maid.

      I wouldn't want to release them, either. Spew on, my reactionary friend.

    • 5:49 for those paying a capital gains tax, including mr obama, his maid, or warren buffet's secretary, for investments made using after tax monies, (and by after tax monies, i'm referring to ordinary income that has already been taxed at the current appropriate tax rate which we are ALL subject to) - when those investments are liquidated, the payable capital gains tax is at a lower rate than the ordinary income tax that was already paid on the money invested. Everyone is treated in the same way for the same financial transaction - EVERYONE. ...president obama, mitt romney, the secretary, the maid and the illegal alien included.

    • 8:55

      If you have not seen Romney's tax returns you really don't know what you're talking about. Do you? Do you?

    • Let me preface my remraks that I am neither a Dem or a Rep, and that I have nothing personally invested on his winning the election (or losing it, either).First, you have to recognize that he is out of lockstep with the Republican Party's current political apparatus. As it stands now, the Party is largely run by highly conservative apparatchiks, and has been so since the early 90 s. This means that most rank and file Republicans are a good deal more moderate than those running it. As a result, Ron Paul is anathema to them first because he does not support the war in Iraq and is a social moderate, and second because he comes in not as a traditional Republican.Second, Mr. Paul has little public support because Republicans do not traditionally nominate mavericks or radicals to represent the Party in the general election. The last man who fell into that category was Barry Goldwater in 1964 and he lost badly to Lyndon Johnson (he only won 48 electoral votes and less than 40% of the popular vote). Republicans as a general rule play it safe.Third, Mr. Paul's more traditional brand of conservatism articulates the notion of a more isolationist America. That is not a winning formula in this day and age, but there are potential big losers should he be elected: mostly large corporations that operate internationally and have depended traditionally on American governmental support to forward their business interests abroad. The potential, too, for greater controls on the American market means that foreign corporations who operate in the U.S. may potentially suffer as well through greater strictures, regulations and possibly tarriffs.The confluence of business and Republican Party antagonism towards Mr. Paul makes his nomination highly unlikely. 8-1 is a sucker bet I'd put him at around 15-1.Cheers.

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