... a Democrat, plans to dig into Mitt Romney in a speech on immigration reform Wednesday, when he will call the candidate's rhetoric and anti-immigrant endorsers "beyond the pale."
"For the first time in modern memory, a major political party is poised to nominate a presidential candidate who has abandoned immigration reform and instead advocates self-deportation," Villaraigosa will say in a speech...
... outrageously lied when he asked Mitt Romney this:
"Governor Romney, the few times and I think it was only once, that they experimented with self-deportation, only a handful of individuals voluntarily left. What makes you think that -- that program could work?"
The fact of the matter is that illegal aliens do self-deport and have been doing so for decades. See the link for the details. What...
... CNN
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.
MODERATOR: Wolf Blitzer
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas the candidates present will be flawed, and the moderators won't press them on their actual...
During the last debate, Mitt Romney supported a form of what's called "attrition" to reduce the numbers of illegal aliens in the U.S., suggesting that many would self-deport; see the link for a description of that plan. The reaction by many to Romney's use of "self-deport" was more than a bit shocking.
Now, see the video below (cached) where Newt Gingrich mocks something that actually happens:...
... Tampa
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas the candidates present will be flawed, and the moderators won't press them on their actual policies but instead...
... there were four: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. Rick Perry dropped out earlier today.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas the candidates present will be flawed, and the moderators won't press them on...
One of Fox News' favorite liberal lightweights, Juan Williams, asked the GOP presidential candidates a series of dumb questions at last night's Republican Party debate. Here's just one of them:
WILLIAMS: Governor Romney, your father was born in Mexico. You still have family there, yet you have taken the hardest line of anyone on this stage on immigration reform, including opposition to key parts...
... there were five: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. Jon Huntsman dropped out earlier today.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas the candidates present will be flawed, and the moderators won't...
... she's referring to is in the Mitt Romney press release (link) where Romney announces that Kobach supports him (bolding added):
"We need a president who will finally put a stop to a problem that has plagued our country for a generation: millions of illegal aliens coming into the country and taking jobs from United States citizens and legal aliens, while consuming hundreds of billions of dollars...
... Hampshire
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates and Facebook. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas the candidates present will be flawed, and the moderators won't press...
... Hampshire
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman. Michelle Bachmann won't be attending as she recently dropped out of the race.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: For a preview of this debate, see debates, Diane Sawyer, and George Stephanopoulos. As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few...
One tactic Mitt Romney's opponents have used and will continue to use is to portray him as a little weird for belonging to a weird religion. Ashley Parker and Michael Barbaro of the New York Times are taking a different tack to get to the same point: highlighting some of Romney's small talk that - were it said by anyone the NYT supports - would be presented as charmingly avuncular (or just...
... Iowa
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: As with all the rest, this debate will feature weak, superficial questions and few follow-ups. Any immigration ideas they present will be flawed just like at the debate five days ago. None of the moderators will ask as many...
... Iowa.
PARTICIPANTS: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.
NON-PARTICIPANTS: Jon Huntsman didn't meet the minimum qualifications. Herman Cain recently "suspended" his campaign.
TRANSCRIPT: When available.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Stephanopoulos will, of course, attack the candidates in scurrilous ways. The candidates won't be able to do much about it...
... becomes available.
Participants: Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum.
Suggested reading: the links in the list of candidates above, debates, and most importantly of all the alternative to bogus political debates. That plan would ensure that the presidential candidates promote vetted policies with only known side-...
... becomes available.
Participants: Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum.
Suggested reading: the links in the list of candidates above, debates, and most importantly of all the alternative to bogus political debates. That plan would ensure that the presidential candidates promote vetted policies with only known side-...
... becomes available.
Participants: Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum.
Suggested reading: the links in the list of candidates above, debates, and most importantly of all the alternative to bogus political debates. That plan would ensure that the presidential candidates promote vetted policies with only known side-...
... Levin
Grover Norquist
Herman Cain
Mitt Romney
Andrew Napolitano of Fox News
Rudy Giuliani
Jonah Goldberg
Dinesh DSouza
Andrew Breitbart
Carly Fiorina
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Rep. Marsha Blackburn
Rep. Andy Harris
Rep. Mike Pompeo
John Fund of the American Spectator
Roger Hedgecock
Ann McElhinney, James OKeefe, and Bob Bowdon (film makers)
Tim Phillips and Phil Kerpen of AFP
Virginia Attorney...
... becomes available.
Participants: Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. Jon Huntsman won't be attending out of protest against Nevada moving up the date of their caucus.
This debate will be even more bogus than others, because the host will be Anderson Cooper. The debate will feature regular citizens asking questions. Some of those...
... others.
Participants: Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. Questions will be asked by Karen Tumulty, Charlie Rose, and Julianna Goldman.
Suggested reading: debates for past examples of bogus debates and each of the names in the last paragraph except for the last two.
UPDATE: A transcript is here. The debate was just...
... Youtube.
Participants: Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Gary Johnson. Note that the last two major debates didn't include Johnson.
Suggested reading: debates for past examples of bogus debates; popular voting systems for an explanation of the flawed system Youtube uses to choose the questions that are asked;...
... available.
Participants: Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.
Suggested reading: Tea Party Patriots admit immigration "isn't an issue for us", all the dozens of other posts showing why the tea parties are a pernicious group, the links in the list of candidates above, CNN, Wolf Blitzer, debates, and some questions in my...
... News and featuring Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. I'll replace this text with a discussion of the immigration portions of the debate after a transcript becomes available. In the meantime, see each of those links for background information, and feel free to leave comments on the debate below. I predict that any immigration...
... bald eagle with the other.
2. Mitt Romney: The GOP would be in better shape with him, but he has several issues. He's patrician but not in the FDR way; it would be easy for the Democrats to portray him as out-of-touch and mostly unconcerned with most Americans' experiences. The Democrats would also associate him with Big Business and part of the problem rather than the solution. And, of course,...
... are (see each link for more):
* Mitt Romney
* Newt Gingrich
* Tim Pawlenty
* Herman Cain
* Michelle Bachmann
* Rick Santorum
* Ron Paul
The debate is sponsored by CNN, WMUR, and the New Hampshire Union Leader, with John King as the moderator. Note that Gary Johnson was not invited to the debate because he wasn't considered a viable candidate.
See the CNN and King links and the posts on the...
... going to actively try to prevent Mitt Romney from getting the GOP nomination [1]. I'm not a fan, but Romney is one of the few electable current or potential candidates. So, the tea parties - controlled in large part by Freedomworks even if they don't know it - might bring their NY-26 magic to the national stage and help elect Barack Obama to four more years.
What the GOP can do about this is to...
... right, at least as compared to Mitt Romney, who in the 2008 primaries did worst among Republicans earning less than $100,000 a year. And yes, Pawlenty is keeping his distance from the Ryan plan. But biography only takes you so far. The big issues of 2012 will be jobs and incomes in a nation still unrecovered from the catastrophe of 2008-2009. What does the GOP have to say to hard-pressed voters...
... (Mike Huckabee), Sarah Palin and (Mitt Romney) - these are all old news names and, quite frankly, I don’t think they have much of a chance.”
While Jonathan Martin and Kasie Hunt of the Politico try to claim (link) that the appeal to Armey and Chocola is due to the claim that Pence "is viewed as a politician who would actually govern as a social and fiscal conservative" and that the "Draft Pence...
I haven't discussed a Frank Rich column here before, so let's start by showing several ways he's wrong in yesterday's "If Only Arizona Were the Real Problem" (nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02rich.html). It's centered around that state's new immigration law, but it's a wide-ranging rant. Here are just some of the ways he's wrong):
Per this, Mitt Romney has endorsed John McCain:
Romney, a 2012 presidential aspirant, famously tangled with McCain on the campaign trail in 2008, and has some indirect ties to Hayworth -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of Hayworth's biggest boosters, served as honorary chair of Romney's Arizona campaign team in 2008, while Jason Rose, an advisor to Hayworth's Senate run, was Romney's...
... include John McCain, Jeb Bush, and Mitt Romney. The first two are obviously strong amnesty supporters; the last came out for it recently. Others on the panel include Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal; their positions aren't known.
Others signing on include John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander, and two who had their own amnesty plans: Mike Pence and Jon Kyl.
Per Ben Smith,...
... it was difficult to tell where Mitt Romney stood on immigration matters because he crafted his various statements in an ambiguous fashion and - of course - neither MSM journalists nor citizen journalists tried to find out exactly what he supported. Now, he's let us know where he stands (for now at least). From this:
Romney believes that one way to attract more minorities to the GOP is to pass...
Mitt Romney has joined the board of Marriott International of hotels fame. Their chairman Bill Marriott is a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, and, due to media corruption, Romney's exact position on that was never cleared up however he was generally against some forms of amnesty. The New York Times editorial board takes note of this in "Mitt Romney in the Amnesty Hotel" (link...
Barack Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod owns an astroturfing company.
And, during the campaign the comments at many major sites (WaPo, Politico, Digg, etc.) were chock full of sockpuppets posting lame jokes, comments insulting McCain and/or Palin, and comments extolling the virtues of The One.
Could those two things have something to do with each other?
... appears to libel both Oberweis and Mitt Romney:
Oberweis, a wealthy owner of dairy stores, was targeted by grassroots supporters of comprehensive immigration reform. They found he had the same problem as erstwhile Presidential candidate Mitt Romney - he employed undocumented immigrants while bashing them on the campaign trail. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and...
... difficult to find out exactly what Mitt Romney's immigration policy is. In the past, he's hinted at attrition, but as far as I know he's never come out explicitly for it and defined it in the depth that Fred Thompson did.
And, earlier today KFI's John & Ken interviewed him about his positions, and they were unfortunately in "nice" rather than "attack" mode and thus didn't try to pin him down...
... identifying themselves as Latinos: Mitt Romney got 41%, followed by Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee with 9% each, Rudy Giuliani with 8%, Duncan Hunter with 6%, and Fred Thompson with 1%. The only openly pro-amnesty candidate, John McCain, got 25%. Rudy supports an amnesty, he just doesn't push it that much. But, to be fair let's add them together and come up with around a third selecting someone who'...
Apparently "attrition" - the plan to enforce our immigration laws and thereby encourage many or most illegal aliens to go home and discourage future illegal immigration - has the New York Times scared, namely because they think it would work.
... has recently complained that a Mitt Romney ad was misleading about his record in regards to illegal aliens receiving Social Security benefits. From the ad, as discussed on Fox News Sunday (link):
McCain pushed to let every illegal immigrant stay here permanently. He even voted to allow illegals to collect Social Security.
As Chris Wallace points out, that's misleading.
A minor example of how Time magazine and the rest of the MSM mislead and/or don't understand immigration issues is presented in "Tancredo's Single-Issue Victory" (link):
...By basics [U.S. Rep.