Unforced Errors: Romney’s Coal Campaign Another Campaign Disaster

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    (Romney does his Mr. Burns imitation – unleash the HOUNDS on those coal workers if they don’t comply!!! – promoted by lowkell)

    As has been a common theme of the Mitt Romney campaign, seemingly sound political moves have turned into unequivocal political nightmares . In a new political ad that will run in swing states Virginia and Ohio, Team Romney pulled video footage from a recent Ohio rally that shows Ohio coal miners flanking the presidential candidate as the ad goes on to blast President Obama for “ruining the coal industry.”

    Not only do many of the coal miners look unenthused about participating in the rally, they apparently had little reason to be. According to Politico, “they [the coal miners in the ad] were pulled out of the mine to join the Republican candidate” (i.e. forced to take the day off without pay). Do you mean to say that Romney forced workers out of a job (snark!)?[1]

    Of course, the free market has ruined the coal industry, not President Obama[2]. Given Mitt Romney’s supposedly free market beliefs, one would think that the former Bain Capital CEO would have few qualms about the cheap flood of natural gas that has pushed coal to second-class status as a source of energy.

    Wait, what’s that you say, Romney has taken advantage of federal subsides too? Yes, and here’s one instance out of many. As CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Romney “built it” with a little help from Uncle Sam. “What Romney doesn’t talk about [in TV ads his campaign ran during the 2012 summer Olympics] is how he succeeded in Utah with government help-lots of it-and how millions in assistance that he priced out of the feds ended up bankrolling subsidies, sweetheart deals, and giveaways for land developers and other well-connected Utahns.”[3]

    Thus, when it comes to attacking President Obama on his coal policies, and implicitly his economic policies, Mitt Romney is hardly the man to be pointing the finger. In fact, Mitt Romney is just as hooked on the government kool-aid as the 47% percent that he recently disparaged in the now viral footage of his comments at a Florida fundraiser.[4]

    Mitt Romney: a liar, a hypocrite, a coal-industry connected fat cat, and a foreign policy dunce, among other things. Does that sound like an attractive presidential candidate?

    1][2 http://www.opednews.com/articl…

    3][4 http://www.dailyfinance.com/20…

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