Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Introducing the Romney Research Center: A Media Resource

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We are delighted to introduce The Romney Research Center: A Media Resource. This is a wiki page where we will collect verified, fact-checked background information about Willard that can be used by members of the media and other interested observers as a reference resource.

The Center is dedicated to the memory of Seamus, Willard’s loyal dog and putative best friend, whom he placed in a box, strapped to the roof of a car full of children, and drove at high speed from Boston to Ontario until he (Seamus, that is — Willard managed to hold it, as far as we know) suffered bowel failure.

We have set up the Center so that anyone can comment in the Discussion tab to offer suggestions, criticisms, and commentary. The front page, however, can only be changed by the BMG Editors. We stand behind the accuracy, to the best of our ability, of everything on it.

This is just a start. We will develop the Center as the campaign continues. We encourage you to contribute and will credit all submissions. We look forward to your suggestions.

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Comments

    • Kudos to BMG for providing this public service. 

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      I’m adding my new favorite Mitt line, which is in the Mass Dems video David posted as my signature until he quits his campaign.

  2. Did John Walsh or MassDems get permission from Emily Rooney or WGBH/PBS to use her image and Great er Boston set/logo in a partisan and inaccurate video?  After the scandal not long ago a WGBH about the unauthorized use of member names and addresses for campaign purposes, has WGBH retreated from its policy of accuracy and nonpartisan information?

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    Please advise – from the text of the 1994 letter to the Log Cabin Republicans and remarks elsewhere – when was Romney previously pro-gay marriage?  He explicitly mentions support on issues of employment and housing, but where is the NINETEEN NINETY-FOUR gay marriage support? BTW – can you find even a Cheryl Jacques supporting gay marriage then?

    • why do you expend so much effort on this loser?

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      Anyway, has anyone ever claimed Romney was actually pro-gay marriage at any time?

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      As for permission, it’s called “fair use.”  I can’t imagine that those little snippets — which have not been altered, as far as I can tell — could possibly constitute a copyright violation.

      • The RRC did describe Willard as “pro-marriage,” a mistake which PP accurately pointed out and which I have corrected. He is in fact “anti-marriage,” since he doesn’t want a large fraction of the population to be able to enjoy its benefits. Personally, I think marriage is an excellent institution and should be encouraged, but there are some people who don’t like it.

  3. It would be a dream come true if some day I were named a Senior Fellow at the Romney Research Center. My mom would be so proud.

  4. Wow…are we going to have conferences and panels?

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    I also notice that this will be part of the new BMG Media Empire LLC.  You guys are really hitting big time.  I guess the question is, if invited to next year’s White House Correspondants’ Dinner, will you go?

    • Determining Willard’s position on many important issues is enough, for example, to keep the epistemology specialists in the philosophy department of any major university busy for many weeks. The work could produce some riveting research papers that might substantially advance the state of research in the field, I think. There might also be a panel on veterinary issues, and one for the linguists on the semantic differences between calling government imposts “taxes” or “fees.”

  6. Does the blue flag logo for this new venture say “Research” or “Rearch”?  Or is this a deliberate scrivener’s error – he used to be arch conservative, then he wasn’t; now he’s “re-arch” once again. . . .

  7. Perhaps you can find a spot in the research library for this transcript of an interview with Romney in 2003. 

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    For some reason, he is identified as “spokesman” in the transcript, instead of as Romney, but the words did come from him.  His fans will take issue with my interpretation but this struck me as a classic “Let them eat cake” comment:

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    BETTY ANN BOWSER: Seniors will lose prescription drug benefits, there will be fewer drugs covered, and poor people and the elderly on Medicaid will be asked to pick up a larger portion of their medical care.

    SPOKESMAN [actually Romney]: We have roughly one out of six people in Massachusetts who receive entirely free health care. They don’t pay a dollar for a prescription, a hospital visit, or a doctor visit. People are buying cokes and hamburgers and, in some cases, getting cable TV. It seems that when you receive free healthcare, you ought to be able to put down a little bit of money as well.

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    He’s saying that those lazy senior citizen couch potatoes should give up food so they can start to pay for healthcare.  Bunch of welfare queens sucking the government dry for insulin, x-rays and chemotherapy, whether they need it or not.  Maybe this kind of rhetoric won’t hurt him with the average American voter but I see the point of those who claim that Romney is a friendless, flip-flopping liar who looks like Frankenstein and is scared of fire.

  8. I didn’t check all the links and links-to-links, but I have 2 suggestion to make your site something more than a self-serving Romney bash-a-thon:

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    (1) It’s good that you have Globe, Herald, AP and Time sources (to name a few.)  But too many links link back to BMG or Massresistance, ok if you enjoy anti-Romney opinion.  Admittedly I didn’t follow the links all the way back, and maybe they end on verifiable news sources.

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    Nonetheless, if you wanted to produce are real resource center you should have linked back to the news source directly instead of making the reader do it.  Progressives who hate Romney will enjoy the journey, but I’m guessing that normal folks looking to learn more about the candidate will abandon the page early.

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    (2) Not that I mind, but isn’t it a bit awkward to have in the right-hand “Ads by Google” sidebar a prominent link to MittRomney.com?  I know they pay something to be there, but it’s a touch hypocritical, don’t you think?

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    Have you no pride?

    • Although, just for reference all of the $0.0000034 or whatever of ad reveue goes to wikispaces, not to us.

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      Your comments about sources are excellent. I am sure you are right.

  9. with the NASCAR dads?  It pissed me off, and I’m not even much of a sports fan:

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    This was legal theft:

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    Scalping law? What scalping law?
    Sellers, regulators, and police brazenly ignore a statute limiting markups

    ….Street scalpers, particularly around Fenway Park during the baseball season, ply their trade with impunity, often in plain view of police officers. On the Internet and at brick-and-mortar locations around the state, ticket resellers charge far more than the law allows, and the Romney administration does next to nothing, saying enforcement is not a core priority….

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    Why didn’t Mitt care about ticket scalping much?

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    Pro teams find a hot ticket in secondary market

    ….Tagg Romney, a former ticket software executive and Governor Mitt Romney’s son, said he believes new ticket technology makes it possible for even teams like the Sox, which are located in states or municipalities with antiscalping laws, to fully embrace the secondary ticket market.

    He said most antiscalping laws prohibit the sale of tickets above face value….

    Romney argues that clubs can effectively sidestep the law’s markup restrictions by electronically canceling the bar code on the seller’s ticket and issuing a new bar code to the buyer.

    What the buyer gets is a new ticket with a new face value, Romney says.

    ”We had a lot of lawyers look at it,” Romney said. ”This wouldn’t violate most state laws.”

    Emphasis mine.  Romney raises good businessmen who “sidestep” the law.  Nice ethics.

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    And if was a reporter, I might look into ticket sales at the Olympics.  I am unencumbered by any data or rumor, I’m just sayin’ I might be curious….

  10. I came across this, via TalkingPointsMemo, at http://www.palmettos…

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    The Brownback camp today took a pungent jab at the former Massachusetts governor by proposing an addition to the Webster?s Dictionary:

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    p>  MITT-AMORPHASIS

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    p>  Phonetic:

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    p>  Mitt-a-mor-pha-sis

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    p>  Definition:

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    p>  1. (v) A self-directed and self-contradictory cyclical process, occurring in even-numbered years, by which a Massachusetts politician transforms at will.

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    p>  2. (v) The evolutionary process by which a member of the species homosapiens becomes a dolphin.

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    p>  3. (v) The synchronized revolution at any given point in time consistent with the changing political winds

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    p>  Usage:

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    p>  1. Franz Kafka clearly understood the dangers of mitt-amorphasis.

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    p>  2. John Kerry personified mitt-amorphasis, and others have taken it to new levels

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    p>  3. The mitt-amorphasizing agent caused the politician to grow gills and flippers.

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    p>  Synonyms:

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    p>  flip-flopper, opportunist, chameleon, unelectable, John Kerry

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    p>  Antonyms:

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    p>  consistent, principled

    • Much of that is true, but Brownback you’re running for president for goodness sakes.  Don you know that?

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