“Mitt” the Movie: What’s Not There

Mitt Romney – Netflix/YouTube

Mother Jones – David Corn

No 47-percent reaction? Far more is missing than present in the new Netflix documentary on Romney.

Forgive me for being parochial, but I was looking for a specific piece of footage in the new Netflix behind-the-scenes documentary on Mitt Romney—simply titled Mitt—that was made by Greg Whiteley, who trailed the GOP candidate for six years through Election Night 2012. I yearned to see Romney’s response to the release of the 47-percent video: how he personally reacted to this revelation and how his campaign planned its public reply. This was a significant moment in Romney’s political life. How he handled it could be quite enlightening. After all, the film does record how Romney dealt with his 2008 loss in the GOP presidential primaries. (In conversations with his family, Romney acknowledges he was branded “the flippin’ Mormon,” and says, “I think I’m a flawed candidate.”) But Whiteley offers us no peek at how the former CEO processed the historic 47-percent moment that did much to define him—or reinforce an existing definition.

In fact, for all the access Whiteley obtained, he serves up little material that will alter the basic story of Mitt. Sure, the viewer will learn that Romney likes to romp in the snow with his grandkids, that he’s happier with a pair of duct-taped gloves than a new set, that he has a somewhat dark sense of humor, that he often thinks of his father, that wife Ann is tightly strung, and that Romney likes to pick up trash from the floors or balconies of hotel rooms during tense moments (say, before he hits the stage for a debate or prior to the announcement of election results). Certainly, Romney comes across as less robotic in these 90-minutes of home-movie-like scenes. But the film offers no insights about the fellow. His faults as a presidential candidate are not examined. What he really believes—other than the notion that the nation is heading off a cliff due to too much taxation and regulation—is left on the cutting room floor. That is, if it was ever captured.

The documentary, in a way, is anti-matter, shaped by what it does not cover. Campaign deliberations are not chronicled. Critical decisions are barely detailed. The film tracks Romney during the 2008 primaries; it ignores the 2012 GOP contests (picking up the narrative at the 2012 convention). Grandchildren get more screen time than key aides. It’s as if the movie was produced in a bubble—actually, a bubble within a bubble.

Mitt appears to be an effort to rehab Romney’s image—to show the real family guy, not the 1-percent caricature. Yet there’s not much here to prompt a serious reconsideration. And the documentary answers no questions that linger after Romney’s two failed expeditions toward the White House. Perhaps most Americans are not craving such answers. But Romney and his campaign did leave behind material that should be explored. The list below of moments and matters that do not appear in Whiteley’s narrow version of RomneyWorld show that there is not much to miss in Mitt.

• Bain outsourcing jobs
• Self-deportation
• Romneycare
• Obamacare
• The decision to pick Paul Ryan as running mate
• Donald Trump
• Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
• “The trees are the right height.“
• Afghanistan
• Iraq
• The London Olympics
• Tax returns
• The $10,000 bet
• “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate.“
• Varmint shooting
• Cheesy grits
• The Cayman Islands
• “You people.”
• “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
• Abortion
• China
• Russia
• “Binders full of women“
• Etch A Sketch
• Bullying the gay schoolmate
• “Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000.”
• Wall Street
• “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”
• Benghazi
• “Corporations are people, my friend.”
• American exceptionalism
• Al Qaeda
• “I’m not sure about these cookies.”
• Iran
• “I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners.”
• Clint Eastwood
• “A couple of Cadillacs.”
• Seamus

Ann Romney: ‘We’ve Given All You People Need To Know’ About Family Finances

The unmitigated gall of this “privileged” woman is rather unpleasant, in my view.  The “all you people…” part is what’s so damned unacceptable here…

The Huffington Post

Mitt Romney’s wife is reinforcing her husband’s refusal to make public several years of tax returns, saying “we’ve given all you people need to know” about the family’s finances.

“You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” she said. “He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary for four years.”

Ann Romney told ABC News she thinks the Obama campaign’s attacks on her husband have been “beneath the dignity of the presidency.” And she said people will decide whom to vote for based on whether their lives would be better under Mitt Romney than President Barack Obama.

She said that ultimately she believes voters are “going to fire the coach.”

CORRECTION: The original version of this article omitted the word “people” from Ann Romney’s quote.

See video here…

Related articles

• Ann Romney on tax returns: ‘We’ve given all you people need to know’ (rawstory.com)
• Ann Romney: ‘Liar Or Felon’ Criticism Was Beneath Obama’s Dignity (mediaite.com)
• Ann Romney on VP: ‘Not quite there yet’ (politico.com)
• Ann Romney Defends the Secrets of Family’s Fortress of Money [Ann Romney] (jezebel.com)

Barack Obama Campaign Attacks Mitt Romney Over Swiss Bank Account

The Huffington Post

A conference call organized by President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on Monday to push for higher tax rates for millionaires quickly descended into an attack on Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney for his secretive Swiss bank account, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) declaring that no presidential aspirant has ever had such an exotic financial portfolio.

“I asked Warren Buffet in a meeting we had recently, ‘Have you ever had a Swiss bank account?’ He said, ‘No, there are plenty of good banks in the United States,'” Durbin said.

“So I started asking people: ‘Why do you have Swiss bank account?’ One, you believe the Swiss Franc is a stronger currency than the United States dollar. And that is apparently the decision the Romney family made during the Bush presidency. And secondly, you want to conceal something. You want to hide something. Why would you have a Swiss bank account instead of one in the United States? I would like to … ask the press to really press some of these questions, the obvious questions. When is the last time a presidential candidate for the United States had a Swiss bank account? I think the answer is never.”

It was the most direct the campaign has been on the topic of Romney’s offshore funds. The issue arose during the heart of the GOP primary, when Romney released 2010 tax returns and 2011 estimates. Recently, the Obama campaign has tried to revive the charge that the former Bain Capital executive is playing loose with the tax code.

The Romney campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

Continue reading here…

Related articles

• “Rich American Exceptionalism”: Whose Swiss Bank Account Hedges Against The American Dollar? (mykeystrokes.com)
• Romney Failed To Disclose Swiss Bank Account Income (mykeystrokes.com)