ThinkProgress Logo

Election

NEWS FLASH

Peggy Noonan: Donald Trump Is ‘Part Of The Freak Show’ | Wall Street Journal columnist and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan has condemned the Romney campaign for associating with birther Donald Trump. “My view is that the Romney campaign made a mistake,” she said Tuesday morning on CBS. “There was a certain freak show atmosphere to the Republican primaries in the past six months or so. Now that’s kind of over, the show is over. Mr. Romney wins the nomination tonight. Texas will put him over the top. This is a good time to differentiate himself with the stranger aspects of the Republican race.” She added, “One way you don’t do it, I think, is do a fundraiser with Donald Trump. He was part of the freak show aspect.” Watch it:

On Sunday, Washington Post columnist George Will described Trump as a ”bloviating ignoramus.”

Economy

Sen. Scott Brown Touts Vote For Wall Street Reform In Ad, Neglects To Mention How He Watered It Down

By Pat Garofalo posted from ThinkProgress Economy on May 29, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R), in the face of a challenge from Wall Street reformer Elizabeth Warren, has been going out of his way to claim that he has been tough on the nation’s banks. Case in point, a recent ad released by his campaign prominently claims that he was “the tie-breaking vote on Wall Street reform“:

The problem with Washington is that people down there are always battling. That’s not how I operate. We’re Americans first, and I’ll work with anyone to get things done. I was the tie-breaking vote on Wall Street reform.

Watch it:

Brown did cross the aisle to vote with Democrats to approve the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. However, what the ad neglects to mention is the role Brown played in significantly watering the down the law, which has landed him heaps of Wall Street cash.

Brown was instrumental in weakening the Volcker Rule, which was meant to rein in risky trading with federally backed dollars by the nation’s biggest banks. He also forced Democrats to strip from the law a $19 billion bank tax. Without that provision, the Congressional Budget Office is now bizarrely claiming that the law has a “cost” of about $20 billion, a score which Republicans have seized upon as justification for their efforts to repeal the law entirely.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, employees from the securities and investment industries have given more money to Brown than those of any other industry. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, which just lost billions of dollars on the sort of trading that the Volcker Rule was originally meant to curtail, are amongst his top ten donors.

Climate Progress

Romney Campaigns Against Green Jobs While Solar Industry Is ‘Flourishing’ In His Home State

By Rebecca Leber posted from Climate Progress on May 29, 2012 at 3:29 pm

The Romney campaign released yet another ad today on Solyndra and the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program. Romney’s ad repeats the same half-truths and lies about stimulus funding that factcheckers have repeatedly debunked.

During the campaign, Romney has routinely dismissed the nation’s 3.1 million clean energy jobs while intensifying his attacks on the industry. Ironically, the clean energy industry is booming in his home state of Massachusetts, creating 64,000 jobs across the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors.

In a story published over the weekend, the Boston Globe highlights how solar is “flourishing” in his home state:

In the past two years alone, solar energy-generating capacity in the state has more than doubled to 105 megawatts, ­according to the state Department of Energy Resources. That’s enough to power at least 15,750 homes.

The number of solar installation firms in the state has also exploded, to nearly 200 last year from about 43 in 2007. In total, state energy officials estimate that more than 1,300 solar energy firms — installers, manufacturers, and others — operate in Massachusetts, employing about 14,000.

In addition, Massachusetts has created a market for solar renewable energy credits, which solar project owners can sell to power plant operators to meet state regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

The money from those sales helps further lower the cost of solar power.

Such policies have made solar economically competitive in the state, despite less than optimal sun, said Jim Dumas, principal at Solect Inc., a Hopkinton company with 10 employees. Solect is currently installing a 475-kilowatt solar system atop a commercial building in Northborough.

In April, the Center for American Progress filmed a short documentary on the explosion of activity in Massachusetts’ clean energy sector.

Even while solar grows quickly in Massachusetts, helping grow new businesses, Romney’s plan would reduce investments in clean energy. He would strike subsidies, loans, and research for the clean energy industry — all while endorsing a House GOP budget that maintains subsidies for oil and coal giants.

Despite a year of investigation finding no evidence of political misconduct, the GOP has hammered away at Solyndra. American Crossroads is up with its own ad today on Solyndra, following an earlier fact-challenged ad from its affiliate Crossroads GPS.

Factcheckers have called every one of these ads bogus. The Washington Post FactChecker labeled these ads a “depressing duty” because the same “erroneous assertions” had been debunked years ago. And Politifact gave a “false” to the claim that Solyndra contributed to higher gas prices.

In fact, an independent review of the loan guarantee program that supported Solyndra found that it will cost $2 billion less than originally anticipated.

Dirty Tricks In Wisconsin: Secret Group Shuts Down Phones Of Scott Walker’s Democratic Challenger With Spam Texts

By Scott Keyes on May 29, 2012 at 3:16 pm

One week before Wisconsinites vote on whether or not to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), a conservative group is engaged in dirty tricks that have shut down the Democratic challenger’s campaign phones.

According to multiple reports, independently verified by ThinkProgress, the following spam text message is being blasted out to many Wisconsin cell phones:

FRM:WI@obamasaliar.com
SUBJ:Union Puppet
MSG:Tom Barrett is a Union Puppet who will give Union Thugs everything they want. Call & ask why 414-271-8050

The phone number is that of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s campaign headquarters. The influx of calls following this spam text message has shut down phones at Barrett’s campaign, just seven days before Election Day and right as get-out-the-vote efforts are ramping up.

If you live in Wisconsin and have received this message or have any tips about its origin, leave a comment below.

Politics

Romney Surrogate Claims Campaign Ignored ‘The Attack On Mrs. Romney’ From Hilary Rosen

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Politics on May 29, 2012 at 2:20 pm

Mitt Romney surrogate Frmr. Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO) defended the governor’s upcoming fundraiser with birther Donald Trump during an appearance on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Tuesday afternoon, insisting that the campaign will use the event to focus on economic issues. Asked if Romney would have criticized President Obama had he appeared alongside a controversial supporter, Talent suggested that it would not and even claimed that Romney avoided weighing in on Hilary Rosen’s claim that Ann Romney “has actually never worked a day in her life“:

MITCHELL: If president Obama were to appear with a prominent fund-raiser who said things as outrageous as what Donald Trump said again today, would you in the Romney campaign let it go?

TALENT: We’d keep focusing on the main subject of the campaign is and we’ve done that. Every time the president trying to get off to something different like the attack of Governor Romney because of his dogs or the attack on Mrs. Romney we keep going back to what’s important… Every time the campaign or something comes up on the other side that does that, we keep going back to the main issues because campaigns shouldn’t be about the horse race. They ought to be about what’s important to the American people and that’s what Governor Romney’s going to stick with.

Watch it:

The facts tell a different story, however. Within an hour of Rosen’s remarks in April, Romney’s wife Ann joined Twitter and personally condemned Rosen. The following day, the campaign deployed a series of surrogates to slam the pundit in conference calls with reporters and press releases, while Ann appeared on Fox News. The campaign and its conservative allies demanded — and won — public condemnations of Rosen from the Obama campaign, the DNC, prominent Democrats, and even President Obama himself. Ann Romney later described Rosen’s remarks as a political “gift,” noting, “It was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother, and that was really a defining moment, and I loved it.”

Rosen, unlike Trump, was never part of the Obama campaign, yet the Romney people insisted that Obama apologize for her comments. They’re now taking a different tact with Trump, proving that Romney is willing to embrace supporters who spew lies and misinformation so he can raise money and appeal to the most conspiracy-minded conservatives.

Switch to Mobile
ThinkProgress Signup Overlay Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress

Sign Up