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Kill Mitt: Raucous GOP Debate Sees Romney On The Ropes

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Romney feels the heat (AP)

Ahh, South Carolina. From its racist, lionized politicians to its well-informed citizenry, the Palmetto State is a bastion of a bygone era many of us are happy to have never lived in. At last night's GOP debate in Myrtle Beach, sponsored by FOX News, the candidates pandered mightily to the raucous audience to give them what they wanted: blood. Specifically, sweet, sweet Mormon blood.

The first questions were about Romney's Bain record, and Perry, using his most adorably flawed grammar, attacked Romney for not releasing his tax returns.


Romney would dodge Perry's question, but when asked later by a moderator if he would release the tax returns, he gave a long, uncomfortable answer about "tradition" dictating that he release them in April, presumably after he has sewn up the nomination. By then, people won't really mind a few overseas bank accounts.

Rick Santorum then cornered Romney into a Super PAC corner, forcing him to hilariously deny any knowledge of his Super PAC's goals, and claiming he hasn't spoken with them in months.

Out of Romney's two main rivals in South Carolina, Gingrich and Santorum, it was Gingrich who stood out and brought the loudest cheers. Spurned former NPR corresponded Juan Williams asked Newt if he thought some of his comments about making black children janitors could be perceived as insensitive. "Can't you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, particularly to black Americans?" Gingrich, seeing the opportunity to stand up to the "liberal" African American on the panel, replies, "No, I don't see that."

Williams pressed him further, mentioning Gingrich's recent chilly reception at a black church, and is booed. "The suggestion you made was about a lack of work ethic…You've called Obama the 'food stamp president.' It sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people."


When in doubt, it never hurts to invoke South Carolina's history of defying the federal government on matters of race. Rick Perry is fantastic at flirting with secession, and fires up the crowd by again deflecting a question from Juan Williams regarding the state's fight to force voters to present a drivers license at the polls. "Are you suggesting on this Martin Luther King, Jr. day that the federal government has no business scrutinizing the voting laws of states where minorities were once denied a right to vote?" Not if they're "at war" with the federal government!



Ron Paul had his usual decent debate performance, Rick Santorum failed to gain any traction with the audience on revised drug sentencing to benefit African Americans, and Romney mistook moose for elk. The mere mention of Mexico was booed. Will one of the candidates bite the head off a bat in the next debate before Saturday's primary? We'll find out on Thursday.

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Comments [rss]

  • Timon_8

    Referring to Juan Williams as a liberal, even with the quotation marks, made me laugh out loud!

    And yes, he was legitimately fired.  Despite his ridiculous whining.

    For some sober commentary on modern American conservatives:
    http://jezebel.com/5876363/con...

  • jfu222

    Nothing will really change unless we as a people change. This is a race of awareness and not economics...or even technology for that matter.

    If the psycology/awareness of the general population is increased, there is now way the current system can continue.

    Sorry, but a vote will not change our current course.

    Minimizing the major distractions in life (pick your poison) and physically talking to others will though.

  • jfu222

    Sorry...can't correct the typos on this iPad at the moment. Kind of funny though considering what I just posted...and never would have happened if we were actually speaking in a room

  • whiteiris

    racist, lionized politicians like

    "Robert KKK Byrd, Grand Kleagle, Democrat. Barack Hussein Obama.

  • Navin_Johnson

    Did the rally end with them picking a Grand Wizard and storming Fort Sumter?

  • whiteiris

    Don't speak ill of the liberal dead.

  • I'm disappointed by no reverse vampires in this race.

  • Roger_the_Shrubber

    Face it. On election day you will have a choice between two puppets with the same puppet master.

  • It sounds like Juan Williams is starting to regret becoming a token of the right because he was legitimately fired over saying something stupid. This is what you joined up with, dude. Suck it.

  • whiteiris

    Juan Williams was their token black and you say he was legitimately fired? You're another clueless racist liberal idiot.

    "
    “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot.
    You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement
    in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I
    see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are
    identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I
    get nervous.”

    Comparing this to NPR’s past behavior in dealing with white
    employees, this shows a significant difference in how NPR treats
    employees based upon their race. Nina Totenberg said that she wished
    Senator Jesse Helms would get AIDS; she was not fired. Andrei Codrescu
    said that “The evaporation of 4 million [Christians] …would leave the
    world an instantly better place”; he was not fired.  Loren Jenkins
    called Arab people “ragheads” in an editorial meeting; she was not
    fired.

    After Sandra Rattley-Lewis, NPR’s Vice President for Cultural
    Programming, was terminated under suspicious conditions she filed a
    lawsuit alleging race discrimination and retaliation by the network. 
    NPR settled the lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed sum.  In her
    suit Rattley-Davis charged that NPR demoted her while advancing less
    qualified whites, failed to give her the same promotions and support
    that it gave white managers, and refused her a severance package equal
    to that given white managers. NPR claimed that Mrs. Rattley-Davis’s
    position was eliminated due to downsizing, but the claim was shown to
    lack integrity in light of the fact that Mrs. Rattley-Davis had only
    recently been transferred into that position.

    Sunni Khalid, a black American and Cairo Bureau Chief for NPR, filed a
    racial discrimination suit against NPR in 1997.  In his suit, Khalid
    charged that:

    NPR managers including Loren Jenkins had made discriminatory remarks.NPR News never fulfilled a repeated promise to Khalid that he would
    be assigned to Johannesburg. Khalid banked on the assignment, turning
    down a job offer from a “major commercial news organization.”During his first three months as Cairo Bureau chief, NPR failed to
    provide Khalid the same support it gave to other white reporters —
    including a car, studio, office assistance, driver, translator and
    Arabic lessons.NPR refused to promote Khalid to correspondent, despite a “highly favorable” performance review.Loren Jenkins retaliated against Khalid when he made complaints, criticizing him unfairly and giving him lousy assignments.

    NPR spokesperson Scott confirmed that Loren Jenkins called Arab
    people “ragheads” in an editorial meeting.  Jenkins, who is white, was
    not terminated after the remark.  Jenkins had been promoted to Foreign
    Desk Chief over another candidate, Joyce Davis, who is an
    African-American."

    http://www.fortliberty.org/the...

  • Thanks for taking the time to cut and paste something from
    "fortlibery.org" which is the only place where all but two of these
    allegations are mentioned.

    Just because it was wrong that those other people were not fired for all the things you think they did doesn't mean Juan Williams shouldn't have been fired. Two wrongs, and all that good stuff. BTW, it's always hilarious when people have to go back over ten years to dig up dirt.

  • LePouteen

    It's "secession," unless you're referring to inherited thrones and stuff.

  • GentleGiant

    I don't think any of the candidates actually advocated for the death of Romney and, while Romney was put on the defensive, his campaign is hardly "on the ropes" given that he still has a lead in South Carolina and is leading in Florida.

  • BottomlessChips

    "Romney on the Ropes"

    According to Chris Robbins...

    If he thinks this is the case, I hope he goes on Bovada or InTrade and bets a fortune. 

  • ANGRYGOD11

    Nevada recently proposed a change in the law as its not legal to bet on political races in the USA. However, if anyone wants to fly to London place a bet....

  • BottomlessChips

    Do you know who's behind the initiative? Casinos only make a couple percentage points of their revenue from the sportsbooks. I'd imagine handicapping non-sports is very risky for the books, which is why Bodog/Bovada has relatively low limits on the entertainment/politics props.

  • "Kill Mitt"? Put down your copy of The Catcher in The Rye.

  • J_Temperance

    Clowns to the left, jokers to the right.  What a sad state of affairs. 

  • Roger_the_Shrubber

    If you mean candidates of both parties, I agree with you. The party bosses and their paymasters are far from clowns. They're top notch pros when it comes to rigging elections and screwing the voters.

  • Roger_the_Shrubber

    This is a charade.

    The GOP bosses already picked Romney behind closed doors. They don't give a damn what the republican voters want.

    The primaries are rigged. Ask yourself, why do some states like Iowa and New Hampshire get to decide which candidates the rest of the states get to vote for?

    The US has no business lecturing other countries about free elections.

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