RUSH: The State-Run Media is now equating the Romney welfare ad to the Obama murder ad. And there is a school of thought, because the Romney welfare reform ad accusing Obama of taking the work requirements out of it….
That’s a marshmallow ad. And yet the Regime is over the moon, fit-to-be-tied angry about this ad. Now, one of the schools of thought is that getting mad at Romney’s welfare ad gives cover to the “Romney is a murderer” ad. Anyway, you’ll hear members of the mainstream media agreeing that the Romney welfare ad is just as bad as that murder ad.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is yesterday and last night, a montage of various media figures from the Drive-By Media, equating the Romney welfare ad with the Obama murder ad. Now, one thing: This Romney ad on gutting welfare reform, accusing Obama of taking the work requirements out of it, they really are excited by this. They are just livid over this ad. And it can only be for one reason, and that is: It’s the truth. That’s what sends liberals and Democrats into orbit, is when you tell the truth about them. That’s why they didn’t like the Swift Boat ads. That’s why they didn’t like the Willie Horton ad. And the reason they don’t like the welfare reform ad that Romney is running is it’s true.
Because it’s a marshmallow ad.
I mean, yeah, the text in the ad is accurate. But it’s not delivered in a hard-hitting, table-pounding way. It has a very measured tone. It’s not boisterous by any stretch of the imagination. And yet they are fit to be tied over this. In fact, the New York Times has an editorial today. The New York Times doesn’t even have a real news story on the “Romney Killed My Wife” ad. The Politico is covering for Obama and the campaign on that ad. The New York Times doesn’t even have a real story on it, but they have an editorial calling Romney’s welfare reform ad “a new low in the history of politics.” So here we have an audio sound bite of media people trying to equate these two ads.
JIM ACOSTA: This is what both sides are doing these days.
DAVID “RODHAM” GERGEN: Both sides are boiling mad tonight at the other because each one thinks the other has been dishonest in a very unfair way — and, frankly, they’re both right.
JOHN AVLON: It’s prevalent on both sides —
ERIN BURNETT: Yes!
JOHN AVLON: — directly these ugly ads.
KATE BOLDUAN: Independent fact-checkers, though, have said that the claims in the ad are false, both sides.
CAROL COSTELLO: They’re just flat-out wrong (cackling) and they’re untrue and that’s coming from both sides.
FRANK RICH: This sort of desperate, uh, fictionalization. And then, of course, you have on the Romney side their ridiculous ad. It doesn’t have murder in it but it does have —
PIERS MORGAN: The welfare ad!
FRANK RICH: The welfare ad.
PIERS MORGAN: Which is also riddled with downright lies!
FRANK RICH: It’s — it’s — it’s complete lies.
RUSH: There aren’t any lies in the welfare reform ad! (laughs) The Republican governors the regime is talking about asking for waivers didn’t ask for waivers. It’s Obama and the campaign lying through their teeth. Folks, I have no reason to lie to you about this. That’s what we were talking about at the top of the program: We don’t want to get up where we end up by lying. That’s not sustainable. It’s not a real, substantive win. We happen to care about it. Maybe we’re too honorable. I don’t know.
But I have no reason to lie to you about any of this, and there’s nothing in it for me to be wrong. It does not help me to be wrong about any of this. There aren’t any lies in the Romney welfare reform ad. There’s no comparison in the two ads. Obama’s got an ad saying, “Romney killed my wife!” Here is that ad. Let’s do it again. And Romney has doubled down with a new welfare reform ad that’s really going to tick them off. But here is this disgusting Obama ad blaming Romney for the death of this steelworker’s wife.
SOPTIC: (dramatic music) When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant I lost my health care (dramatic chime), and my family lost their health care (dramatic chime), and, uh, uh, a short time after that my wife became ill. (dramatic chime) I don’t know how long she was sick. Uhhh, and I think maybe she didn’t say anything because she knew that we — we couldn’t afford the insurance. And — and then one day she — she, uh, became ill (dramatic chime) and I took her up to the Jackson County hospital and — and — and admitted her for pneumonia. And that’s when they found the cancer. And by then we were stage 4. There was — there was nothing they could do for her. (dramatic chime) And she passed away in 22 days. (dramatic chime) I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone. (dramatic chime) And I… Furthermore, I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned.
RUSH: “No, no. Mitt Romney killed my wife. He’s not concerned.” So the regime, when called on this, said, “We don’t know the guy’s story. What we do know is that Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital took everybody’s health insurance.” None of it happened. The Obama campaign has been caught lying about this. They’ve been caught red-handed lying about the ad. It was just a month ago that the Obama campaign hosted a conference call and ran ads featuring the same story that they claim to know nothing about, with the same guy.
Joe Soptic!
The same guy.
They all know this, but they don’t care. They don’t care about that, and they don’t care what you think of them. Their focus is the people reading about this on Facebook and Twitter. Now, the way that works is people see the ad and they have whatever reaction to it they have. Let’s say they’re pro-Obama. They say, “Do you believe this? Why Romney, Bain Capital, killed that poor woman!” So these people start tweeting this ad and putting it on their Facebook pages. And it goes viral.
And then the pop culture set, who is not watching television for news anymore — they’re just getting their news from Twitter and Facebook — they see it. That’s what the Obama campaign wants. That’s how they want the ad to spread. They want people to see the ad, devoid of any context. They just want them to see the ad. They want them to see this guy all sad. His wife died; Mitt Romney caused it. That’s what they’re trying to achieve. Not true? That doesn’t matter. They don’t have any respect for the people of this country.
They’re not burdened with any of that.
They don’t care what people think of them.
What they care about is what people think of Romney. And that’s what they’re attempting to do is create a caricature of Mitt Romney as a rich, insensitive guy who doesn’t care about what happens to anybody but himself. People die. He doesn’t care. People get sick and get poisoned. He doesn’t care. People are poor. He doesn’t care because he’s a rich guy. And he won’t release his tax returns!
That’s all they’re doing.
They’re not trying to win the election with a triumph of their ideas. They can’t. They’re not trying to win the election with a recitation of Obama’s record. They can’t. All they can do — all they can do — is turn Mitt Romney into Satan. That’s what they’re trying to do. So naturally those of us opposed to Obama, when we see this happening — and we don’t see the campaign reacting to it in a way that makes it look like they understand what they’re up against — then, yeah, we get a little bit ticked off. Now, here’s the new Romney campaign ad which is doubling down. They do okay in their ads. Sometimes they get rapid response out of the ads, which is good, as far as it goes. And here’s the latest.
This is from Romney’s website, MittRomney.com. It’s a new ad entitled, “The Rise and Fall of Welfare Reform.”
BILL CLINTON: (music) This bill will help people to go to work so they can stop drawing a welfare check and start drawing a paycheck.
SEN. CARL LEVIN: Why should an able-bodied person receiving welfare benefits not be required to work?
SEN. JOHN KERRY: It’s an important change. Yes, people ought to work. Hardworking American citizens should not be required to carry people.
JOE BIDEN: I introduced a — a concept of workfare in 1986. I remember being pilloried by my colleagues on the Democratic side at the time, uh, for suggesting that there be mandatory work requirement for anyone receiving welfare.
OBAMA: I was not a huge supporter of — of the — the, UH, federal plan that was signed in 1996.
RUSH: So you have all these Democrats talking about welfare reform and work requirements from Clinton to Carl Levin (the second voice) to John Kerry (who, by the way, served in Vietnam). And you heard Biden in there. And it ends with Obama (impression), “I didn’t agree with any of that. I’m not a huge supporter of making people work for welfare.” They’re going to be really ticked off because he’s not.
What was the number? What is the number? One hundred million Americans now receive a welfare check. One hundred million Americans! In terms of the total population, one-third of this country gets a welfare check. If you reduce that to the adult population, you’re getting close to 50% of the adult population that receives a welfare check. And that’s just fine with Obama, as you know.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the first Romney welfare reform ad that the New York Times says is a new low in American politics. The New York Times says Romney hit the bottom on welfare with this ad. “Mitt RomneyÂ’s campaign has hit new depths of truth-twisting with its accusation that President Obama plans to ‘gut welfare reform’ by ending federal work requirements. The claim is blatantly false, but it says a great deal about Mr. RomneyÂ’s increasingly desperate desire to define the president as something he is not.”
It’s a parallel universe, the Twilight Zone. They don’t have a single story of any substance of any weight about “Romney killed my wife.” That ad is fine with them.
Here’s the ad that the New York Times is so exorcized over…
ANNOUNCER: But on July 12th, President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements. Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They’d just send you your welfare check. And welfare-to-work goes back to being plain old welfare. Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement because it works.
RUSH: That’s exactly what Obama did — and he did it very quietly, by the way. There was no big fanfare, no celebratory announcement. There was no calling the press, no gathering in the Rose Garden and saying, “Hey look at the vast and wonderful great improvements that I am making in welfare!” They did this under cover of darkness, late in the day. Quietly. No ceremony whatsoever. If it’s such a great damn thing, why no pomp and circumstance? And this ad you just heard, that’s the ad the New York Times says is the most despicable thing yet.
Now, the New York Times, they did do a fact-check on the “Romney Killed My Wife” ad. And the only thing they said about it was the super PAC “Romney Killed My Wife” ad “compresses time in a way that links the closure of the steel plant with Mrs. Soptic’s fatal illness.” That’s all they said about it. That’s all they said.