Romney Today * Open Thread (Several Updates)
By Bronwyn's Harbor on January 23, 2012 at 10:45 AM in Current Affairs
NOTICES: Join us here tonight in a live blogging thread to discuss, mock, cheer, and cringe during the latest GOP presidential nominee debate. The four-candidate debate in Tampa, Florida airs at 9pm ET/8pm CT and 9pm PT on NBC (FYI: NBC, I’m told, failed to update its programming schedule so you may not see the debate in your cable/satellite schedule. Be assured the debate will air on NBC TV’s channels nationwide.) Read more debate details below.
Below you’ll see what I’ve just now transcribed from Mitt Romney’s Q&A session this morning in Tampa, Florida, live on CNN. Later, CNN returns to Q&A, and goes on to raise concerns that if Gingrich were the GOP nominee, who knows how many “October surprises” there will be, perhaps as many as one a day. As for calling Gingrich a lobbyist, Romney quipped, “If it walks like a duck, acts like a duck. …” More: Gingrich now calls for dismantling the federal Dept. of Education yet, says Romney, Gingrich was instrumental in creating the federal education agency. Then there’s that very recently, Gingrich raved about Romney’s Massachusetts health plan, yet only now attacks it. Gingrich, observed Romney, is like a pinball, bouncing all over the place.
CNN HOST: [Romney] is taking questions right now in Tampa, Florida, addressing Gingrich and the charges that Gingrich has made against him and his leadership.
MITT ROMNEY: … The policies of Freddie Mac as well as the policies of government. I didn’t hear that nationally.
I didn’t hear [Gingrich] making those warnings to the nation. He should have. He was working inside this industry, providing counsel to them. He should have provided that advice to them and communicated that to the nation.
ROMNEY CONTINUES IN HIS TAMPA Q&A: But, because of the mistakes of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and those associated with those entities — as well as people in Congress, and Wall Street, and bankers, and mortgage bankers, and in some cases speculators — we see a crisis which has an enormous human toll.
And so I am calling on Speaker Gingrich again to … release all of the work product associated with his work at Freddie Mac, and also return the funds that he made from Freddie Mac. I wouldn’t have normally suggested that except that he was the one who suggested that if you made money on this failed model, that you should return the money.
QUESTION FROM REPORTER RE ROMNEY’S TAX RETURNS: [Question inaudible, but it apparently has to do with the date that Romney's tax returns will be made public.]
ROMNEY: The reason that they are being released that day is because the trustee for the trust of our family funds is available that day. His name is Brad Multh [sp?], and he is in New York that day. And I don’t know the time. I think it is sometime in the morning. But it was just to accommodate his schedule.
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Conclusion of CNN’s coverage of the Romney Q&A.
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Here is the remainder of the debate information that begins at the top of page one of this post:
Alternative live streaming from 9pm to 10:30pm ET only NBCPolitics.com, National Journal, and TampaBay.com.)
Debate moderators: NBC’s Brian Williams and a panel including National Journal’s Beth Reinhard and the Tampa Bay Times’ Adam Smith.
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