Democrats are in full force at Saturday night’s Republican debate in New Hampshire, ostensibly to rebut the GOP field, but in practice mostly to go after frontrunner Mitt Romney.
Well, not necessarily, the frontrunner. In an interview with TPM at St. Anselm College in Manchester, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz pushed back against any premature pronouncements of Romney’s inevitable nomination.
“I would not put the cart before the horse and define him as an unambiguous frontrunner,” DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told TPM in an interview at St. Anselm College in Manchester. “He’s coming off what at some point probably wont even be defined as a win in Iowa where fewer voters came out for him than came out in 2008.” She added that anything less than 50% in New Hampshire should be interpreted as a sign of weakness given his close ties to the state.
Nonetheless, as polls show Romney threatening to secure the nomination early, Democrats are unveiling new campaigns to try to define his business experience as more Gorden Gekko than Steve Jobs. Party officials have been holding press events in Iowa and New Hampshire with Randy Johnson, a worker who was laid off from his job at American Pad and Paper under Bain Capital’s management in the 1990s, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Bain’s layoffs under Mitt Romney will be a critical part of their general election strategy should he win the nomination. Romney says that his opponents are cherry-picking his failures and ignoring success stories like Staples, but his campaign has been unable to substantiate its claims that he created net jobs and critics note that even some of Bain’s failures ended up creating a profit for Romney and his fellow investors through consulting fees and dividends.
“Mitt Romney, I think, is more of a job cremator than a job creator,” Schultz said. She added: “He was a corporate buyout specialist at Bain Capital. He dismantled companies. He cut jobs. He forced companies into bankruptcy and he outsourced jobs and sent jobs overseas. That’s not a record to write home about, that’s not a record to be proud of, and it’s something voters need to know.”
Schultz said Romney received the most attention from Democrats in part because he had devoted the most time to going after President Obama in his public remarks.
“That’s all he does,” she said. “His singular focus really is to attack President Obama.”
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
Now <i>that</i> is a soundbite. well done.
I like the "job creamator" title. Dems should use it more often on the opposition party.
Darsan54
Would that be the "Republic" party?
The entire conservative economic trickle down plan that crashed the economy should carry the label of Job Cremators! Vote Republican, vote job cremators.
He keeps repeating "Staples, Sports Authority and Domino's" but even these jobs are nothing to write home about--low-wage retail and fast food jobs, who needs them?
The change the subject trolls aren't having such a good day today.
Debbie hit it right on the head. While Romney boasts of being a job creator, all one has to do is look at his record with Bain Capital. The number of jobs with good pay and benefits that were eliminated during his tenure there is insurmountable, while the jobs he created though Bain consisted of nothing more than low-paying, non-benefit part-time jobs. Yes, the jobs he eliminated: manufacturing jobs that, at the time, paid $12 or more an hour have been swapped out for jobs that now pay $7.25 an hour. Jobs that were once full time employment with health insurance benefits have been swapped out for part-time, non-benefit positions.
Debbie was right: He is a job Cremator!
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is going places most people only daydream about. Her message is based on facts not religion. Her ideas are base on freedom and the American dream not lies and fear. I'm sticking it out with the President. Mitt Romney is idea-less.
I am not taking it out on Debbie, I like her but jokes have no place in government. They are destroying our country and laughing about it. If I had my way these people would never laugh again. Put them behind bars and feed them gruel.
Samuel_Bun Oh come on, humor is a very effective way to communicate with people and make a memorable impression. The fact we take government and its people waaay too seriously as a society is one of the reasons the Republican Party in particular is full of so many loons. So many purity tests exist that only the most boring people in the world dare to be politicians, or the most religiously fascist. Barney Frank uses humor very effectively to point out Republican hypocrisy. Look at what is the most honset sources of news today - The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - the real media is so uptight about being called biased one way or ther other that these two shows clearly spell out the hpyocrisy out there.
What is destroying our country are the conservatives that lie through their teeth about EVERYTHING, and the moderate Democrats more concerned about electability that cower to this nonsense.
Actually, there is a long tradition of humor in politics. Abe Lincoln was probably not the first joke teller that was a politician but he was the first Republican President. One of my favorites was: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." This quote brings Mr Santorum to mind :-) Samuel_Bun
Heh heh. "Feed them gruel" ... that's funny. Samuel_Bun
Ugg the Repug We see what Ugg do there. =)
Like it or not, the press will pay no attention unless you give them sound-bytes. We have to play the game by the rules, whether we like it or not.Samuel_Bun
Samuel_Bun We've had political humor since the days of the Roman Empire. If you don't want to laugh about your politics, move to North Korea.
Just like the republicans, the democrats need to move away from the nutjobs. And Debbie is just as nutty as Pelosi is. Despite TPM's red-herring article here, a lot of the debate was on social issues, like contraception (a backdoor way to debate abortion) and gay marriage. And Debbie was leading the way with this line of questioning and attacks. They should be focused on talking about jobs and the economy, but the "establishment" likes the wackjobs to deflect attention from their greedy ways.
TotalRecall9 Nope. Rep. Wasserman-Schultz is spot on in going after Flip Flop Romney's so called record. And she did it in a nice, soundbite way that resonates and is something people will remember.
I hope she keeps it up.
Pelosi is nutty? Only to the scared right wingers....
I hope both Pelosi and Dumb Debbie keep talking. They are both so out of touch with the real America that every time they open their mouths, the Democrats lose votes. It's Pat TotalRecall9
howienicaIt's PatTotalRecall9 Real America is in the eye of the beholder.
howienicaIt's PatTotalRecall9 keep telling yourself that. Better yet, tell it to Mitt's handlers.
Awww. Did Debbie's "Job Cremator" line sting? Rub some of your bullshit on it. Har har har.
howienicaIt's PatTotalRecall9
howienica @It's Pat TotalRecall9 Way to change the subject howie. Real 'mericans aren't afaid to have discussion or debate the problems we all face today.....
howienicaIt's PatTotalRecall9 That's a howler!
TotalRecall9 How was DWS being nutty? By talking about jobs?
TotalRecall9 The only people who think DWS and Pelosi are nutty are republicans who get their heads handed to them by those two ladies on a regular basis.
To quote Barney Frank, " on which planet do you spend most of your time?" Pelosi"s views are so extreme that the Peoples Democratic Republic of San Francisco is the only Congressional District in the country where she could be elected. pollyjunkie TotalRecall9
howienicapollyjunkieTotalRecall9 Have you been outside of your suburb? If you think Palisi is extreme, you really need to get out more...a lot more.
Any idiot goper who thinks the likes of Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz are extremist is a fox-believing-ready-for-a-padded-cell lunatic. Pelosi, who incurred the wrath of many thinking Americans with her "impeachment is not on the table," during the years of bush and dick's mass murder spree, became a hero during the first years of the Obama Administration as her House of Representatives put forth one piece of desperately needed legislation after another, most of which were killed by goper goons and DINOS in the Senate, but some of which got through to Obama's desk and helped America begin to crawl out of bush and dick's sewer. The Amerikan right is a pus ridden sore on the ass of humanity, and must be relegated to the trash heap of history where it belongs.
howienica pollyjunkie TotalRecall9 Yeah, her views are so extreme she only got 300 bills through the House of Representatives as Speaker.
miserblof F*** YEAH!!! Would like this 10 times if I could!!!
Randy AbrahamhowienicapollyjunkieTotalRecall9 I can't wait for her to be Speaker again!
Where are the tax returns, Mittens?
Where are Obama"s University Records? Is he ashamed of them? musicman495
Okay... How about both Obama and Romney release their Harvard Law School records AND then Romney can release his tax returns for the past 7 years as the President has already done. You are playing a fools game. It's a debate the Democrats want. Make the challenge, Obama releases the documents to make you nuts look more like idiots than you are (like the long form birth certificate as he has done) and then Romney will have to release his taxes... which he really cannot do and win. So keep it up... because I really want to know what Romney's tax returns look like.
howienicamusicman495
howienica musicman495 Very original!
howienicamusicman495 Really? How about his kindergarten records? How about his mother's. President of the Harvard Law Review not good enough anymore-huh? I wonder why not? Just keep moving those goal posts.
It must gall you to wake up EVERY morning with Barack Obama as President.
Mittens should show his tax returns and you need to not be so sadly pathetic.
I'm tempted to send her flowers. Or possibly offer her a pinch of snuff. Well done, Ms. W-S!
"Job Cremator". Someone got a raise.
New Anti-Romney Video Attacks Bain Capital Work
An ex-Romney adviser is unleashing a half-hour attack video blasting Mitt’s work at Bain Capital. A pro-Gingrich super PAC just scooped it up.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/06/n...
Another of those 1%ers who manages to make money for himself even when what he's been hired to do fails.
Jim Pasterczyk From what I've read, it seems as though that was the intent...
Jim Pasterczyk He's actually a .003% er.
I like Wasserman Schultz more every time I hear her. Certainly jobs could be Romney's weak point. He got a lot of attention for his "bumps in the road" ad, but that could backfire when those bumps stand up and tell how Bain Capital killed their jobs.
Wasserman-Schultz is one of the more shrill Leftys on the National stage. Keep ranting, Debbie. Maybe
howienicaMaybe You always call names. You never criticize policy or point out things that were said that are not true. You're nothing but a name-caller.
howienica
Your arguments are always puerile, consisting mainly of name calling. Never we do we see any cogent arguments advanced. You do a very poor
job of representing conservative ideals. Perhaps take some time off, and learn the facts?
The 89,000 jobs that he attributes to his Staples deal is bogus too… but, on a deeper level.
The office products industry existed long before Romney/Bain helped to create Staples. Before this, there were over 30,000 locally owned, independent office products stores in the United States. There are now less than 2,500.
Before Staples et al came along, between 3 and 4 percent of business expenditures were for office products. Now, the total is still in the 5% range.
So, in reality... The net effect when Staples and the others cannibalized this market was to cause the economy a net loss of over 40,000 jobs with no measurable increase in overall efficiency.
Granted, the majority of these now defunct businesses were Mom and Pop operations and there were (perhaps) some economics of scale that came from the larger operations. But, this also came at the expense of these businesses supporting their local community. From the perspective of the community, this was a crime against Main Street perpetrated by Wall Street.
As President he needs to look at and measure the net job loss or gain on society as a whole.
mjclare A lot of those jobs at Staples are part-time with no benefits and not much in the way of pay. Low end retail.
Not to mention how many multi-generational, thriving family owned local sporting goods and sports specialty stores were decimated and closed due to Sports Authority... what the sporting goods industry calls the dumbed down big box syndrome. mjclare
BRAVO!
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