Romnesia : rom-nee-zhuh : noun. — A condition that is allowing Mitt Romney to conveniently forget his “severely conservative” positions on the issues
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Yesterday in Fairfax, VA, President Obama encapsulated his opponent's transparent attempts to hoodwink various audiences in a single word: Romnesia. See, during the Republican primary campaign, "Severely Conservative" Mitt pandered to the tea party base of the Republican party, but recently "Moderate" Mitt has been making appearances, probably because he knows that the extreme, backward views of the tea party are unpalatable to the overwhelming majority of the American electorate.
Today, Jed Lewison posted a video that intercuts parts of President Obama's speech describing the Romnesia afflicting his opponent with clips of Romney espousing contradictory positions regarding women's and economic issues. Watch:
THE PRESIDENT: But now that we’re 18 days out from the election, Mr. “Severely Conservative” (laughter) wants you to think he was severely kidding about everything he said over the last year. He’s forgetting what his own positions are, and he’s betting that you will, too.
We’ve got to name this condition that he’s going through. (Laughter.) I think it’s called “Romnesia.” (Cheers and applause.)
Now, I’m not a medical doctor, but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you — because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.
If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care — you might have a case of Romnesia. (Applause.)
- "Moderate" Mitt: I don't believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care or not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.
- Reporter: Jim Heath, a reporter for a TV station in Ohio, just tweeted a remarkable piece of news: Mitt Romney told him he does not support the Blunt Amendment, which would empower employers and insurers to deny health coverage they find morally objectionable. What happened here?
"Severely Conservative" Mitt: I didn't understand his question. Of course, I support the Blunt Amendment.
THE PRESIDENT: If you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be delighted to sign a law outlying — outlawing that right to choose in all cases — man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia. (Laughter.)
- "Moderate" Mitt: There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda.
- Anderson Cooper: If Congress passed a Federal ban on all abortions and it came to your desk, would you sign it?
"Severely Conservative" Mitt: I'd be delighted to sign that bill.
THE PRESIDENT: If you say earlier in the year, I’m going to give a tax cut to the top 1% and then in a debate you say, I don’t know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks...
- "Moderate" Mitt: I'm not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people.
- "Severely Conservative" Mitt: We're going to cut taxes on everyone across the country by 20%, including the top 1%.
THE PRESIDENT: (Applause.) ... that’s some Romnesia.
And if you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can’t seem to remember the policies that are still on your website — (laughter) — or the promises you’ve made over the six years you’ve been running for President, here's the good news: Obamacare covers preexisting conditions! (Cheers and applause.)
Oh dear, it must be
so hard for Mitt to keep all of his positions straight. Wonder whether he'll be suffering from Romnesia during Monday night's foreign policy debate?
For a brief history of the origins of "Romnesia," see Romnesia's rise from Twitter to Obama, which presents several fun definitions, including Meteor Blades' back in June:
On this matter, the candidate now would like the whole nation to suffer from what he so often does: Romnesia, that public unremembrance the governor loves to apply when what he has done and said in the past is an inconvenient reminder of his political fickleness.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/... See
Tortmaster's excellent diary for the video of the "Romnesia" portion of the speech. And here are links to the
video and the
transcript of the full speech.
Wonder Whether Rick Perry Will Be Afflicted with Romnesia in Colorado?
In anticipation of Rick Perry's trip to campaign for Romney, OFA Colorado posted a video compilation of Rick's previous positions on his primary opponent:
Intertitles: Rick Perry is coming to Colorado to talk about Mitt Romney. What has he said about Romney in the past?
Rick Perry: If you want to know how someone's gonna act in the future, look how they act in the past. So, Mitt, while you were the governor of Massachusetts, in that period of time you were 47th in the nation in job creation.
Rick Perry: Michael Dukakis created jobs 3 times faster than you did, Mitt.
Rick Perry: There's gonna be some that get up and say, "Well I've created jobs." And that's true. There's, you know, one in particular that's created jobs all over the world. But while he was the governor of Massachusetts, he didn't create very many jobs.
Rick Perry: There is a real difference between a venture capitalist and a vulture capitalist. Venture capitalists are good: they go in, they inject their capital, they create jobs. Bain Capital, on the other hand, it appears to me, were vulture capitalists all too often.
Rick Perry: Because those people in Gaffney, South Carolina, understand what happened to that photo album company. The folks in Georgetown, South Carolina, understand the jobs that were lost. And that Bain Capital took 20 million and 65 million dollars, respectively, from each of those deals and walked away from them.
Intertitles: Welcome to Colorado, Governor Perry. We couldn't agree with you more.
Oh my. Popcorn, anybody?