If you missed this today: Lawrence's Last Word -- it's well worth the time, to watch.
Lawrence O'Donnell on Rick Perry and Charles Ponzi
direct link to clip
Selected transcript snippets after the fold.
partial MSNBC Transcript:
>>> time for tonight's rewrite. it did not take long for rick perry to start rewriting his politically suicidal position on social security. in the most harmful book any presidential candidate has ever written to launch his presidential campaign, author perry called social security a ponzi scheme and said the most popular government program ever is a failure. on wednesday night during his first presidential debate, rick perry was not ready for what everyone knew was going to come at him, his own words.
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>> perfect. that was the perfect dodge. that's where an experienced presidential debater knows he's done. that's it. that's his answer, he's finished. but at this point in the debate, rick perry didn't really know where he was on a national stage where he had to be very, very careful. so the rookie debater foolishly kept going.
>>Rick Perry: I think the republican candidates are talking about ways to transition this program, and it is a monstrous lie. it is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there, anybody that's for the status quo with social security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right.
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>> When you're explaining controversial statements, you're losing, and that's what the problem with the ponzi scheme statement is. there's no constituency in the republican party to abolish social security [...]
>> Stewart Stevens is a senior advisor in the Romney campaign. Steve Schmidt went on to say that he thought the obama campaign must now be hoping to face perry in the election rather than romney adding they are probably "hanging up rick perry signs over the west wing." Karl Rove, Steve Schmidt, and Stewart Stevens are not guessing about republican attitudes over social security, they read polls. in a pew poll in june, 87% of republicans said social security has been good for the country, 87%. and in a june nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll gave us a peek at what Perry would encounter against President Obama.
23% say they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to privatize social security, 55% say they'd be less likely to vote for a candidate who wants to privatize social security. it is impossible to win a presidential election in America while demonizing social security, while calling it, in effect, a fraudulent criminal enterprise, which is what a Ponzi scheme is.
Even Rick Perry now knows this, and his retreat from what Rove correctly calls the toxic rhetoric has begun. here's Rick Perry today in orange county, california.
>>Question: Romney's advisers said you want to abolish Social Security because it's a Ponzi scheme. What do you say to that?
Rick Perry: I'd say that's misinformation. We just want to fix it.
>> amen. god bless you, rick.
>> have they distorted your record?
>> that is what a candidate looks like when he's learning to stop saying crazy things. first, he calls his own words misinformation, then he realizes he's in over his head and shuts up and just keeps walking. that was the safest thing for perry to do today, and it will be the safest thing for him to do tomorrow as he tries to rewrite his ponzi scheme rhetoric out of his campaign. Charles Ponzi was the Bernie Madoff of the 1920s, he basically stole people's money from fraudulent investment schemes. simply taking in new investment money from new victims. what ponzi also did was divert massive amounts of the money to his own personal use, of course, and, of course, his schemes would come tumbling down and everyone involved would lose all of their money. that is, of course, completely different from social security. Social Security will be able to pay benefits forever. no, no, no, not for another 20 years, Forever!
The question before us in the future is simply how much should those benefits be, how much can we, as a country, afford to pay in social security benefits? we will always be able to afford to pay something. if we do absolutely nothing to current law, make no trends, no cuts, no adjustments of any kind, don't touch the retirement age, no changes, 30 years from now social security beneficiaries will be receiving a minimum of 80% of the equivalent of what social security benefits are today. unlike ponzi, social security will not run out of money, it will never run out of money, it cannot run out of money, it will always pay a benefit because it will always be collecting social security taxes, every week out of your paycheck and your children's paychecks and grandchildren's paychecks forever.
perry has chosen colorful language with no descriptive accuracy to what he thinks he's talking about. charles ponzi, who was as much of an ego maniac of any of our politicians would probably get a big kick out of rick perry. [...]
Rick Perry is doing the 'Texas-Two-Step' away from his Big Mistake, as fast as he can today. When asked about his own Ponzi-Scheme statements about Social Security, Tricky Ricky calls his own words "misinformation". Incredible!
Talk about "Big Lies", Perry knows of from where he speaks. Lies like a rug, that one.
Yet someone {Koch} really wants him to win -- Why else would he be walking it back, his Ponzi-brand, so quickly? Someone must coaching him, on what it's gonna take for him to win.
-- basically, he needs to Shut Up, and stick to the Script! But fast.
Perry may be a fool, but he's a Political Fool. I expect him to start doing as he is told. As we saw today.