A True "Both Ways Bob" Moment For Mitt Romney

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by: Colorado Pols

As ably retold by the Washington Post’s fact-checker Glenn Kessler:

“We were able to help create over 100,000 jobs. On the president’s watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto industry and auto dealers and auto manufacturers, so he’s hardly one to point a finger.”

– Mitt Romney, interview on Hot Air, May 16, 2011

The 100,000 jobs is back! The presumptive GOP nominee all but stopped mentioning he created 100,000 in the private sector after we declared in January that claim was untenable and unproven. The biggest problem is that Romney is counting all the jobs added by companies long after he had left the leadership of Bain Capital – and even after Bain’s investment in the companies had ended.

In the Hot Air interview, Romney even made this claim while at the same time arguing that a recent Obama campaign commercial slamming the job losses at a particular Bain investment was unfair because “the steel factory closed down two years after I left Bain Capital. I was no longer there, so that’s hardly something which is on my watch.” (Technically, Romney had not completely extricated himself from Bain but that’s another story.)

The logic there escapes us. Romney appears to be saying it is okay to count jobs created after he left Bain, but it’s not okay to count jobs lost after he left Bain… [Pols emphasis]

You’ll recall that the main defense from Mitt Romney’s campaign against the Obama camp’s GST Steel ads this week was Romney had “left” Bain Capital by the time that Kansas City plant was closed–kind of problematic if Romney is taking credit for jobs created by Bain Capital investments after he left too! As for the claim that Barack Obama presided over the loss of “100,000 jobs in the auto industry,” according to Kessler, it “does not add up.”

Yes, there were some painful cuts in the auto industry at the start of Obama’s presidency, largely because tough choices had to be made. One could argue whether those choices were necessary or effective, but the bottom line is clear: No matter how you slice it, jobs overall have grown substantially in the auto industry under Obama. In fact, it is one of the bright spots of today’s economy.

In summary, Kessler gave this latest excursion into factually-challenged territory from Romney the maximum “Four Pinocchios” on their rating scale, but for local readers who have been with us long enough to remember, a picture is truly worth a thousand words (above, right).

Neither Romney nor “Both Ways Bob” Beapurez were harmed in the making of this picture.

13 thoughts on “A True “Both Ways Bob” Moment For Mitt Romney”

ArapaGOP says:

May 18, 2012 at 7:58 pm

It’s going to need to be pretty darn slow before your lame Photoshop becomes newsworthy.

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1. Aristotle says:
  
  May 18, 2012 at 8:39 pm
  
  then it must hit home.
  
  As Pols shows, Romney’s trying to have it both ways. If you can’t show how that’s false, then you have to try to dismiss it out of hand.
  
  Sorry, but that doesn’t work, either.
  
  Say, are you ready to retract your false statement about Dee Coram yet?
  
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  1. ArapaGOP says:
    
    May 18, 2012 at 10:42 pm
    
    Note: disagreeing with you is not a false statement.
    
    I’m dismissing this for several reasons: it’s lame, it’s Friday, and nobody even knows who Bob Beauprez is anymore. Democrats claim everything they do creates millions of jobs, and deny their job killing regulations do anything at all. Why not give Romney the same privilege?
    
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    1. Aristotle says:
      
      May 18, 2012 at 11:25 pm
      
      Just as if I wasn’t clear and also didn’t have the link to his false statement right there in my sig line. And speaking of having it both ways – not only is he pretending not to know what I’m talking about, he’s also calling it a disagreement/opinion when he stated it as a fact.
      
      You’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. That’s why you’re in trouble here.
      
      I predict you will ignore this comment and not reply to it.
      
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      1. ArapaGOP says:
        
        May 18, 2012 at 11:51 pm
        
        Everyone in that hearing knew Coram son is gay. He would have been attacked if he had mentioned it or if he hadn’t, and his son’s reaction proves it.
        
        What does this have to do with Bob Beauprez having .5% name ID and Pols wasting its precious propaganda time?
        
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        Aristotle says:
        
        May 19, 2012 at 4:24 am
        
        then there was no unpolitical need to bring it up.
        
        Was there?
        
        Not that this has anything to do with what you said, which was, and I quote:
        
        This is a son politicizing a debate with his father. He should have kept it private, or at least more respectful than this.
        
        I highlight that phrase because it shows you had no such thoughts about “what everyone at the hearing knew” when you wrote it.
        
        Retract your statement. I’m going to keep on you until you do.
        
        You should also take back your factually incorrect statement below, the one where you say “Nicknames are easy, that’s why the left prefers them” below.
        
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      2. BlueCat says:
        
        May 18, 2012 at 11:56 pm
        
        His defense of Mittens and the GOP in general are getting lamer and lamer. Here it basically seems to be… People are too stupid to remember stuff, people here are mean and Dems do it so why not Romney? In answer to an observation I made recently about the GOP being on the wrong side of changing opinion and demographics on the civil union question, his answer was a ringing “It is what it is”. One can sense the droop setting in to the shoulders. As with Romney’s difficulty in remembering what he’s supposed to have said or not said, I think we can all understand Bot’s problem.
        
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        unnamed says:
        
        May 19, 2012 at 3:51 am
        
        Party of Personal Responsibility my ass!!!
        
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DavidThi808 says:

May 18, 2012 at 9:24 pm

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1. ArapaGOP says:
  
  May 18, 2012 at 10:43 pm
  
  Dumbass Dave?
  
  Nicknames are easy, that’s why the left prefers them.
  
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  1. Early Worm says:
    
    May 18, 2012 at 11:10 pm
    
    Mitt already has a nickname, and it wasn’t the left that pinned it on him.
    
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    1. Aristotle says:
      
      May 18, 2012 at 11:28 pm
      
      Ol’ Marc Holzman came up with that.
      
      Nor was it the left who dreamed up “Obummer” or “Nobama.”
      
      A-BOT… with such easily shot down talking points as this, I again say that you’re being overpaid.
      
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  2. DavidThi808 says:
    
    May 19, 2012 at 1:58 am
    
    I shall have to retreat in shame after a zinger like that 🙂
    
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