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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Mitt Romney &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Political insight from the Beltway and beyond</description>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Mitt Romney &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Romney Transition Team Flummoxed By Gmail</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/03/romney-transition-team-flummoxed-by-gmail/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/03/romney-transition-team-flummoxed-by-gmail/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=96984</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mitt Romney&#8217;s transition team had plans to inject a heavy dose of corporate America into the federal government, but first they had to adjust to a new email system. It was called&#8230;Gmail. With many on the team drawn from the ranks of Outlook-using consultants and business executives, the Romney Readiness Project, as the transition was known, had difficulty scheduling meetings on the General Services Administration-provided Gmail system. The revelation is included in the 138-page retrospective of the effort to prepare for a Romney victory. From the report&#8217;s lessons-learned section: The GSA support staff did an admirable job setting up technological infrastructure in the Switzer Building. The email and calendar solutions were Google-based products. For the sizeable portion of employees who were Gmail users, this posed no problem at all. From employees accustomed to Microsoft Exchange-based email clients, there was initial resistance to convert. The Readiness Project did not establish clear technological standards early enough and allowed systems to coexist. Since Outlook and Gmail don&#8217;t communicate well, this proved problematic for scheduling. By anticipating these IT problems earlier, the Project could have established clear protocols and properly assisted with migration and adoption of email clients.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=96984&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ap120608122715.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Mitt Romney</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Mitt Romney Inc.: The White House That Never Was</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/02/mitt-romney-inc-the-white-house-that-never-was/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/02/mitt-romney-inc-the-white-house-that-never-was/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Jun 2013 09:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=96866</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the months before the 2012 election, a group of high-powered consultants and political operatives prepared a secret report for candidate Mitt Romney, explaining how he should take over and restructure the federal government should he win the presidency. &#8220;The White House staff is similar to a holding company&#8221; read one PowerPoint slide, which would have been presented to President-elect Romney as part of an expansive briefing on the morning after Election Day. It went on to list three main divisions of the metaphorical firm: &#8220;Care &#38; Feeding Offices,&#8221; like speechwriting, &#8220;Policy Offices,&#8221; like the National Security Council, and &#8220;Packaging &#38; Selling Offices,&#8221; like the office of the press secretary. This was the view of the Presidency Romney would have brought with him to Washington, a glimpse of the White House that never was — and plan that never saw the light of day. But now the secret is out. On May 29, the Romney Readiness Project, the Republican candidate&#8217;s transition organization known as R2P,  published a 138-page report detailing how it prepared for a potential Romney victory. It is the product of a team of nearly 500, who labored in Washington and around the country to be ready to help Romney assume the reins of power on January 20th, 2013, in accordance with the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010. The non-profit R2P, Inc., chaired by former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt and run by former General Motors chief financial officer Christopher Liddell, benefited from free rent and other federal support, and drew heavily from the business and consulting community Romney, a former consultant and private equity executive, knew so well. Among the recommendations for the Romney administration: Corporate-style training seminars were planned for appointees and nominees before the inauguration to teach management skills. A plan to restructure White House operations to suit Romney&#8217;s corporate management style, with clear deliverables. Detailed flow charts delineating how information and decisions were disseminated through the administration to achieve &#8220;unity.&#8221; Plans to evaluate Cabinet secretaries&#8217;s performance by &#8220;systematically assessing the efforts of their departments in contributing to [Romney's] priorities and objectives, perhaps by a newly<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=96866&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/02/mitt-romney-inc-the-white-house-that-never-was/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screen-shot-2013-05-31-at-5-16-21-pm.png?w=168</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screen-shot-2013-05-31-at-5-16-21-pm.png?w=168" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Romney Readiness Project</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/romney-slide.jpg?w=523" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Romney slide</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Campaign Insider Book Argues Mitt Romney Lost Because Of Benghazi</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/benghazi-why-romney-lost/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/benghazi-why-romney-lost/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 18:07:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“No single mistake cost Mitt Romney the presidency,” former Romney advisor Gabriel Schoenfeld writes in the opening page of a tell-all book centered on one mistake on a single day in the 2012 campaign: The Republican’s hasty and flawed reaction to the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. But Schoenfeld argues nonetheless that Romney&#8217;s inability to respond cogently to the Benghazi attack was a key component of his defeat. “A man celebrated for his management prowess delegated an immense mount of decision-making power to individuals who failed to carry out successfully that and other basic functions,&#8221; writes Schoenfeld, who held the title of senior adviser on the campaign. The author substantiates his critique with a biting assault on Romney’s campaign team, especially campaign guru Stuart Stevens and especially policy director Lanhee Chen. “Chen was no Henry Kissinger.” Schoenfeld writes, noting that the policy director preferred to be referred to with the honorific of “doctor.” “Indeed, he had once self-deprecatingly boasted in a meeting that he could not find Finland on a map,” Schoenfeld adds. Stevens, he continues, was controlling about cosmetic issues like how to distribute the campaign’s major policy book—bound or on digital USB sticks—but wasn’t concerned by its contents. Despite his campaign title, Schoenfeld worked mostly outside the candidate’s inner circle. Reporters who covered the Romney campaign publicly wondered who the author was after news broke of his 74-page eBook, A Bad Day On The Romney Campaign: An Insider’s Account. Much of the book involves the a behind-the-scenes narrative of the Romney campaign on September 11, 2012, when the Cairo embassy came under attack and four Americans were killed in Benghazi. Chen, Stevens and Richard Williamson, a former Bush and Reagan foreign policy official who Schoenfeld writes was a “doer not a thinker,” authored a statement, which was never circulated to foreign policy experts who would have spotted its errors. The statement got major facts wrong, and used a national tragedy, the death of the Libyan ambassador and two other citizens, as a launching point for a tangential political<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95143&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/benghazi-why-romney-lost/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/a-bad-day-on-the-romney-campaign.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/a-bad-day-on-the-romney-campaign.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/a-bad-day-on-the-romney-campaign.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">a bad day on the romney campaign</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>Planning a Presidency That Never Was: Inside the Romney Transition Team</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/15/planning-a-presidency-that-never-was-inside-the-romney-transition-team/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/15/planning-a-presidency-that-never-was-inside-the-romney-transition-team/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:50:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katy Steinmetz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=82478</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Of all the operatives working on the presidential election, Mike Leavitt was one of the most important and the most invisible. He was the head of the Republican nominee&#8217;s presidential transition team, the man charged with planning a presidency that never was. “We built a great ship, but it just didn’t sail,” Leavitt says. Leavitt partly credits his longtime friendship with Romney, solidified after Leavitt helped install the candidate to turn around the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, for getting the job. But his background also suited him to the task. A former governor of Utah, Leavitt was the Secretary for Health and Human Services under George W. Bush, a businessman and a fellow Mormon. His work on campaigns dates back to the 1970s, and he had been strategizing with Romney for months before his role in the campaign was formally cast. He took on the transition job in May, after Rick Santorum had left the race and Romney’s nomination had become all but official. Like the candidate, Leavitt was meticulous. During his first two months on the job, he collected 22 books on presidential transitions and interviewed people who had filled the role before. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan outfit that launched a &#8220;Ready to Govern&#8221; program in 2008, organized a retreat in Tarrytown, N.Y., with Romney advisors and transition veterans, including a member of Obama’s 2008 team. Later in the summer, Leavitt also spoke twice with Obama’s chief of staff, Jack Lew. “One of the big lessons is administrations who do it well succeed,” Leavitt says of what he learned about transitions, “and administrations who do it poorly rarely recover.” He cites Jimmy Carter&#8217;s team as an example of the latter, for having a “big, public and divisive set of disagreements about how they would proceed and who would be in charge.” Binders, of all things, were what Leavitt learned to avoid during his transition prep. Many transition teams, he says, put together good people who would walk into agencies armed with “large binders full of material”<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=82478&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/15/planning-a-presidency-that-never-was-inside-the-romney-transition-team/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_romney-2012-mike-leavitt.jpg?w=133</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_romney-2012-mike-leavitt.jpg?w=133" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_romney-2012-mike-leavitt.jpg?w=133" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Michael Leavitt</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/05bfb17f05eff70efc8061bb1a213e86?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Katy Steinmetz</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>Romney: Obama Won By Bestowing &#8220;Gifts&#8221; On Voters</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/14/romney-obama-won-by-bestowing-gifts-on-voters/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/14/romney-obama-won-by-bestowing-gifts-on-voters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:33:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=82426</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the past week, Republicans of all stripes have been grappling with the reasons for Mitt Romney&#8216;s defeat and the attendant ramifications. The post-election postmortems have been equal parts spin and soul-searching, reasoned analysis and recriminations. About the only conservative leader who hadn&#8217;t weighed in yet was Romney himself. Now we know what Romney made of a defeat that so stunned the Republican nominee that he didn&#8217;t bother scratching out a concession speech beforehand. In a conference call with top donors Wednesday afternoon, report Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times and Ashley Parker of the New York Times, Romney ascribed the loss to President Obama&#8217;s ability to sway blacks, Hispanics and young voters with &#8220;gifts.&#8221; With each cohort, Romney argued, Obama was able to point to a &#8220;gift&#8221; that motivated them to support a second Obama term. Parker reports: “In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said. “With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” he said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.” Obama&#8217;s decision to give the children of some illegal immigrants a path to citizenship &#8220;was a huge plus for that voting group,&#8221; Romney suggested. The President&#8217;s health care overhaul, Romney said, also helped mobilize black and Hispanic voters for the President. His own campaign&#8217;s turnout models had assumed the voting rate of those groups &#8212; especially African American voters &#8212; would plummet after the heady thrill of 2008 wore off. In the wake of the party&#8217;s fourth loss in six presidential elections, GOP elders have urged the party to closely examine its mistakes, including where its messaging veered off<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=82426&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_1556894661.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/1500_1556894661.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">image: Mitt Romney stands at the podium before conceding the presidency during his campaign election night event at the Boston Convention &#38; Exhibition Center on Nov. 7, 2012 in Boston, Mass.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Mitt Romney’s Pre-Existing Conditions</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/11/mitt-romneys-pre-existing-conditions/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/11/mitt-romneys-pre-existing-conditions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kate Pickert</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79832</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s hard to tell what Mitt Romney would do to solve the problem of sick uninsured Americans. Right now, these people often can&#8217;t find insurers willing to sell them policies or, if they can, the costs are prohibitive. Under Obama&#8217;s Affordable Care Act, insurance companies will be required, beginning in 2014, to sell policies to anyone who wants one and to ignore customers’ health status when setting prices. This is possible because the ACA also requires nearly everyone to buy health insurance, flooding the market with millions of new customers, including healthy people, whose premiums will subsidize the cost of covering the sick. Covering people with pre-existing conditions is one of the most popular pieces of Obamacare, and Mitt Romney is doing his best to imply that his health care plan would accomplish this lofty goal as well. But there are a few problems. Romney wants to repeal Obamacare and he doesn’t really have a comprehensive plan to replace it, at least not one that he’s made publicly available. In the absence of this, voters can look at his runningmate Paul Ryan’s budget proposals that include health care policy or they can look at Massachusetts, which essentially has a state version of Obamacare championed by Romney when he was governor. He’s at the top of the ticket, so it’s not fair to judge him by Ryan’s past proposals, he says. And the Massachusetts health care reform was right for Massachusetts, but not the nation, he says, so it’s not fair to judge his presidential plans based on that. That&#8217;s fine. But surely it must be fair to judge what Romney said about the problem of the uninsured last time he was running for president, right? Here’s what Romney said in January 2008, explaining why, prior to reform in Massachusetts, uninsured people who could afford insurance nonetheless didn&#8217;t buy it: They said why should we buy it? If we get sick, we can go to the hospital and get care for free&#8230;They shouldn’t be allowed just to show up at the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79832&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">katepickert</media:title>
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		<title>Romney&#8217;s Move to the Middle</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/10/romneys-move-to-the-middle/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/10/romneys-move-to-the-middle/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:23:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79763</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mitt Romney&#8217;s tack toward the political center continues apace. During a campaign swing through Iowa and Ohio on Tuesday, Romney made several overtures to key demographic groups who may be anxious about the impact of his polices.  In an interview with the Des Moines Register&#8216;s editorial board, Romney couched his pro-life position in softer-than-usual terms. &#8220;There&#8217;s no legislation with regards to abortion that I&#8217;m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,&#8221; Romney said. This line leaves him ample wiggle room to pursue anti-abortion policy, of course, and his campaign says Romney &#8220;would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life.&#8221; But Romney&#8217;s statement may nonetheless have been reassuring to many women, a demographic group with whom he trailed badly all year until his strong debate performance last week. As the campaigns spar over the upshot of Romney&#8217;s tax plan, the Republican nominee filled in his framework with a few key specifics Tuesday. Romney has long said he would pay for the 20% across-the-board tax cut he&#8217;s promised in part by closing loopholes and limiting deductions. This led the economists with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center to conclude, in a white paper that made a star turn at the first presidential debate, that middle-class Americans would be negatively impacted by Romney&#8217;s plan, since they are the primary beneficiaries of the costly deductions and credits that Romney would be likely to jettison. But during an interview with CNN&#8217;s Wolf Blitzer, Romney singled out two prominent deductions, promising that they&#8217;d be spared the ax: &#8220;Home mortgage interest deductions and charitable contributions, there will of course continue to be preferences for those types of expenses,&#8221; he said. (PHOTOS: Political Photos of the Week, Sept. 28 &#8211; Oct. 4)  Such pledges make it that much more difficult for Romney&#8217;s fuzzy math to add up; the more options he takes off the table, the harder he&#8217;d find it to meet his goal of doling out all these tax cuts without adding to the deficit. As William Gale, one of the authors of the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79763&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/600_153463303.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Romney Attends Victory Rally In Florida</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>Romney&#8217;s Not-So-&#8221;Major&#8221; Foreign Policy Address Casts Obama as Weak</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/08/romneys-not-so-major-foreign-policy-address-casts-obama-as-weak/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/08/romneys-not-so-major-foreign-policy-address-casts-obama-as-weak/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:33:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79649</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mitt Romney delivered a &#8220;major&#8221; speech on foreign policy on Monday, although that designation of import comes from Romney&#8217;s own campaign, and hardly seems warranted. Romney added little to his previous positions&#8211;most of them fairly similar to President Obama&#8217;s, and spelled out as recently as late July (that one was also a &#8220;major&#8221; address)&#8211;on trouble spots like Afghanistan, Israel, Syria and Iran. What&#8217;s new here is the frame. This was Romney&#8217;s most explicit effort yet to link the recent anti-American protests in the Arab world&#8211;and the murder of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, in Benghazi&#8211;to his thesis that Obama has allowed America to appear dangerously weak to the outside world. Here&#8217;s the crux: The attacks against us in Libya were not an isolated incident. They were accompanied by anti-American riots in nearly two dozen other countries, mostly in the Middle East, but also in Africa and Asia. Our embassies have been attacked. Our flag has been burned. Many of our citizens have been threatened and driven from their overseas homes by vicious mobs shouting “Death to America.” These mobs hoisted the black banner of Islamic extremism over American embassies on the anniversary of 9/11. As the dust settles, as the murdered are buried, Americans are asking how this happened, how the threats we face have grown worse and what this calls on America to do. These are the right questions, and I’ve come here today to offer a larger perspective on these tragic recent events and to share with you and to share with all Americans my vision for a freer, more prosperous and more peaceful world. Romney&#8217;s chief complaint is that Obama has failed to &#8220;lead,&#8221; and has provided unreliable support to our &#8220;allies,&#8221; though by &#8220;allies&#8221; he really just seems to mean Israel. In tangible terms, Romney&#8217;s idea of providing more leadership mainly seems to consists of spending more on defense. &#8220;I’ll roll back President Obama’s deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate our military,&#8221; Romney said. It&#8217;s unclear whether Romney is<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79649&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/600_romney_1008.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Blue Truth, Red Truth</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/blue-truth-red-truth/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/blue-truth-red-truth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Debates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79346</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No one would ever mistake the White House press briefing room for a courthouse or a confessional, so the blue curtains and official seal made an ironic backdrop this summer for President Obama’s impromptu homily on honesty in public life. “The truth of the matter is you can’t just make stuff up,” he told the scribblers who get paid to check his facts. “That’s one thing you learn as President of the United States. You get called in to account.” It was just what reporters wanted to hear, even if it was not exactly true. At the time, Obama was speaking about a campaign ad from Mitt Romney that falsely claimed that the President had eliminated the work requirement for welfare. The ad was unmistakably deceptive. But just five minutes earlier in the very same press conference, Obama had offered some misdirection of his own. “Nobody accused Mr. Romney of being a felon,” he said. In fact, one of the President’s senior strategists, Stephanie Cutter, told reporters a month earlier that Romney was misrepresenting himself either to the American people or to securities regulators — “which is a felony,” she said. Cutter’s was a conditional accusation but an accusation nonetheless, and at the time it allowed the Romney campaign to take its turn playing truth teller. “A reckless and unsubstantiated charge,” protested Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades, who asked Obama to apologize. Of course, no apology was forthcoming. So the posturing got worse. (MORE: Who Lies More? Yet Another Close Contest) “You know, in the past, when people pointed out that something was inaccurate, why, campaigns pulled the ad,” Romney complained about Obama a few weeks later, without any apparent self-awareness. That was followed by Obama aides’ announcing that Romney’s campaign was built on a “tripod of lies” and that Republicans “really think that lying is a virtue.” Romney continued his protests, saying, “The challenge that I’ll have in the debate is that the President tends to — how shall I say it — to say things that aren’t true.”<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79346&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>2012 Election</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/600_cover_1015.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">600_cover_1015</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Campaign Poll: Which Candidate Is Being More Truthful?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/campaign-poll-which-candidate-is-being-more-truthful/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/campaign-poll-which-candidate-is-being-more-truthful/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:59:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TIME Staff</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79306</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It isn&#8217;t just the candidates who have come under fire this election season; it&#8217;s the fact-checkers (read TIME&#8217;s cover story: &#8220;The Fact Wars&#8221;). Both the Obama and Romney campaigns have made claims that the other side is lying, and that the ensuing scrutiny of such claims has been biased (see TIME&#8217;s extensive fact-check of the campaign&#8217;s biggest allegations). Now it&#8217;s time to cast your vote.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79306&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>2012 Election</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeadmin</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Comes to New York for Barbara Walters and, sorta, the United Nations</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/24/obama-comes-to-new-york-for-barbara-walters-and-sorta-the-united-nations/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/24/obama-comes-to-new-york-for-barbara-walters-and-sorta-the-united-nations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:28:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Debates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democratic Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaffes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78900</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday, President Barack Obama made his fourth pilgrimage to New York City for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. He arrived in Manhattan on a glorious autumn afternoon and rushed to his first – and only – public event of the day: a taping of ABC’s The View with his wife, Michelle. Obama’s lack of any scheduled bilateral meetings with world leaders at the summit – last year, as ABC’s Mark Knoller pointed out, he had 13 such tête-à-têtes &#8212;  was the subject of some contention at the White House briefing just before the President left. “I have no meetings to announce to you&#8230;,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. “I mean, the President’s schedule includes the reception this evening. It includes his speech tomorrow [before the 67th General Assembly]. Beyond that I don&#8217;t have details for you. But again, I think it’s fairly clear, based on the President’s engagement with foreign leaders just in the last several weeks, that he is intensively engaged in matters of national security and foreign policy as he has been throughout his presidency.” (MORE: The U.N. General Assembly: 5 Political Potholes for Obama) The lack of personal diplomatic engagement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to secure a meeting with Obama and was reportedly rebuffed. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is not in New York in the days the President is in New York, and the President is not in New York in the days when Prime Minister Netanyahu will be in New York,” Carney said providing the official version, pointing out that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be meeting with Netanyahu. “The President has met with and spent time on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu more than with any leader since he took office.” Of course, meeting with world leaders when you don’t know if you’ll still have your job in the next few weeks, can be potentially awkward. It can lead to unfortunate hot-mic gaffes, of which Obama has not been immune (for example,  in Seoul earlier this year he<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78900&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Foreign Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/obama_the_view_0925.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Obama on The View</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>For Romney, Fundraising Comes First</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/20/for-romney-fundraising-comes-first/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/20/for-romney-fundraising-comes-first/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 2012 09:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78715</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It's nearing 9 p.m. and lightning forks across the sky, but inside a cavernous concrete expo hall, a mostly Hispanic crowd is chanting Mitt Romney's name. Although Romney trails Barack Obama by more than two-to-one among Latinos, Miami -- known for its conservative Cuban population -- is friendly territory. The crowd waves "Juntos con Romney" signs and drops his name into salsa tunes. When Romney takes the stage with his Spanish-speaking son Craig, he looks gratified by the outpouring of support. "What a Miami welcome!" he shouts. "Juntos con Romney!"<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78715&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_fundraising_0920a.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Romney attends Juntos Con Romney Rally</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>Romney Tries to Change the Subject (Yet Again)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/romney-tries-to-change-the-subject-yet-again/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/romney-tries-to-change-the-subject-yet-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:07:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78721</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A few days ago, Mitt Romney&#8217;s advisers promised to kick off a new phase of their campaign. This one would be built around policy specifics, supposedly evidenced by a new ad campaign that includes rather non-specific pledges to &#8220;cut the deficit&#8221; and &#8220;crack down on China.&#8221; In truth, this new start had more than a whiff of empty spin from a Romney team desperate to change the conversation from a botched statement about Arab protests and a wave of stories about internal dissent at Romney&#8217;s Boston headquarters. (Stuart Stevens might want to hire himself a food-taster.) But before a new storyline could sink in, the plan turned to ashes. Mother Jones posted a secretly recorded video of Romney telling a group of wealthy donors that the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes are a political (and perhaps even moral) lost cause, and chaos ensued. Many conservatives seem divided between writing Romney off and offering him comically nebulous advice. Now Romney is making a new effort to change the election&#8217;s storyline. The specificity of a couple days ago already seems like a discarded child&#8217;s toy, as Romney resurrects prior attacks on President Obama as a European-style socialist who disdains capitalism. Today the GOP nominee is harping on a 14-year old clip of Obama, likely leaked by his own campaign, in which Obama explained his support for &#8220;redistribution.&#8221; Romney is treating that unsurprising statement&#8211;America&#8217;s progressive tax code amounts to redistribution, after all&#8211;as a revelation, and again decrying Obama as a socialist-style liberal. Speaking at a fundraiser in Atlanta this afternoon Romney linked the quote to another of his favorite campaign themes: “This idea of redistribution follows from the idea that if you have a business you didn’t build it, someone else did that.   It’s the same concept.  That see, government is responsible for everything that’s gone on here.  And therefore government can take and give as it chooses.  It’s an entirely foreign concept that will not work, that has not worked.  That has never worked anywhere in the world.  And what we have to do in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78721&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/600_romenychangessubject_0919.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Mitt Romney</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Amid Video Controversy, Romney Punches Back</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/no-apology-romney-punches-back-on-video-remarks/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/no-apology-romney-punches-back-on-video-remarks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78675</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dallas, Texas If Mitt Romney is panicking, it&#8217;s hard to tell. As Democrats salivate and Republicans squirm over a surreptitiously recorded video that shows Romney uttering politically fraught remarks to donors at a private fundraiser earlier this year, the Republican nominee is combating the onslaught by going back on attack. The defiant posture is becoming Romney&#8217;s default mode of damage control &#8212; a mode he&#8217;s been in all too frequently of late. After critics accused him of politicizing the Middle Eastern embassy attacks last week, Romney dug in against President Obama&#8217;s handling of the crisis. Now, with a new group of detractors &#8212; including several prominent Republicans &#8212; growing increasingly anxious about the state of his campaign in the wake of damaging hidden-camera footage published by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, Romney has sought to re-frame the debate by using the clip to highlight the differences between his vision of government and Obama&#8217;s. (MORE: Out on the Trail, Romney Broadens Foreign Policy Critique of Obama) The video, reportedly captured during a May fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla., depicts Romney making disparaging remarks about 47% of voters, dismissing the importance of discussing policy during a campaign, and expressing skepticism that Israelis and Palestinians will be able to broker peace. The backlash put his campaign on the defensive. Romney&#8217;s rapid response team even briefly resorted to highlighting a YouTube video of the candidate&#8217;s wife doing an interview with a Colorado TV station, titled &#8220;Ann Romney to Fox31: Mitt Doesn&#8217;t Disdain the Poor.&#8221; At a fundraiser Tuesday in Salt Lake City, which was open to a small group of press, Romney criticized the President for promoting a &#8220;government-centered America.&#8221; During an interview with Fox&#8217;s Neil Cavuto, Romney expanded on the differences between the two candidates&#8217; vision of the role of government. &#8220;I think a society based on a government-centered nation where government plays a larger and larger role&#8230;[is] the wrong course for America,&#8221; he said. Romney&#8217;s campaign has sought to highlight the two candidates&#8217; divergent governing philosophies by pointing to a newly surfaced<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78675&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/no-apology-romney-punches-back-on-video-remarks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_not_dead_0919.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_not_dead_0919.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_not_dead_0919.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Mitt Romney</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>Romney&#8217;s Campaign Is Far from Dead</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/romney-and-the-video-controversy-his-campaign-is-far-from-over/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/19/romney-and-the-video-controversy-his-campaign-is-far-from-over/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Massimo Calabresi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78634</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some of my colleagues are declaring Mitt Romney’s presidential hopes dead and buried; some are enthusiastically dancing on his political grave. This is premature. True, the latest video of Romney denouncing nearly half the country as self-pitying mooches seems to confirm the caricature of a heartless plutocrat that Democrats have spent millions of dollars selling to Americans over the last six months. But the election is still weeks away, the debates are yet to come, and the distance separating the two candidates in the polls just isn’t that big. Saying Obama has the edge and that Romney is in trouble seems credible; declaring the race over does not. (MORE: How Mitt Romney’s Luck Ran Out) Take the second-day story out of the fundraising video where Romney purports to denounce a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Romney did join every recent president in support of the two-state peace plan in an interview with Ari Shavit in Haaretz last July, so the flip in his position is news. And Romney seems to say in the video that he believes “Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” a news-worthy and historically inaccurate generalization that resonates with his unfortunate statement last summer about Palestinian &#8220;culture.&#8221; So it’s understandable that this section of the video is being described as “more trouble” for Romney. But a closer look at the video shows Romney is being less radical than he sounds. After he declares peace &#8220;almost unthinkable,&#8221; for example, he goes through a credible analysis of some of the problems that have beset talks aimed at a two-state solution for the better part of two decades, including control of a Palestinian state&#8217;s eastern border and the dangers of Iranian influence. &#8220;These are very hard to solve,&#8221; he says, and indeed every president from Clinton forward has stumbled over these problems to one degree or another. (MORE: Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Gamble) More important, Romney says from the start of his comments that he is “torn by two perspectives” on the two state solution. He ends<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78634&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/afd9484b1bca74216e145d2c49c8af45?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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		<title>Romney&#8217;s 47% Video: Five Charts to Fact-Check the Remarks</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/five-charts-illustrating-the-problem-with-romneys-47-remarks/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/five-charts-illustrating-the-problem-with-romneys-47-remarks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:40:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Sorensen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78571</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Mitt Romney told a group of wealthy donors that 47% of Americans pay no income taxes, he was (mostly) telling the truth. But everything else about his statement grossly misrepresents the reality of that figure. Here are five charts to clip&#8217;n'save for future reference. Romney’s claim: 47% of people “pay no income tax.” Reality: 47% of U.S. households pay no federal income taxes. Many pay state and local taxes, as well as payroll and other federal taxes. Romney’s claim: The 47% “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” Reality: Few of these people probably think of themselves as entitled takers because they paid taxes in the past (seniors), will pay taxes in the future (students), or already pay payroll taxes on subsistance-level income. Those whose liability is wiped out by tax credits and deductions are mostly the elderly and the working poor. Romney’s claim: These 47% will “they will vote for this president no matter what.” Reality: Obama edges Romney among low-income voters, but certainly not by 100%. In addition, people who pay no federal income tax are heavily concentrated in red states. Huge thanks to the CBPP, the Tax Policy Center and the Tax Foundation for the awesome charts. Go visit their websites. &#160;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78571&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7666b70a5b0305bd59953f5bca02cce5?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Adam Sorensen</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">47</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">47</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/screen-shot-2012-09-18-at-10-51-19-am.png?w=583" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen shot 2012-09-18 at 10.51.19 AM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://taxfoundation.org:81/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/UserFiles/Image/Fiscal%20Facts/20100524-229-nonpayers-mapM.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">47</media:title>
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		<title>We&#8217;re a Nation of Makers and Takers, Including Romney &#8212; and Me</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/were-a-nation-of-makers-and-takers-including-romney-and-me/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/were-a-nation-of-makers-and-takers-including-romney-and-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:02:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Grunwald</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[47%]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fundraiser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I try not to get worked up about politics, but I hate the Tea Party delusion that we’ve become a nation that is split between makers and takers. It&#8217;s the false idea that Mitt Romney, who probably doesn’t believe it, parroted in that cringeworthy video to suck up to wealthy donors who do. The point of my Sept. 17 TIME cover story, aside from getting pictures of my kids and dogs in the magazine, was to show that most Americans are makers and takers, including me. But we’re proud of our making and blind to our taking, which is why appeals to the 53% — minus Romney’s gross I-got-mine attacks on families who think they’re entitled to eat — have some political appeal. Most of the alleged moochers in the 47% — seniors, disabled veterans, the working poor — don’t even realize they’re part of it. They understandably assume politicians must be talking about some other moochers, because they don’t feel like moochers. (PHOTOS: The Rich History of Mitt Romney) I really hope the stir over Romney’s political snuff film will help end the slur that half the country pays no taxes. As many political reporters who never bothered to correct that nonsense when it wasn’t part of a “gaffe” are finally pointing out, the 47% of Americans who don’t pay something imprecisely called income taxes do cough up payroll taxes on their income as well as state and local taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes and other taxes. And most of us cough up more than the 13% of Romney&#8217;s (unearned!) income that he paid in 2011 while running for President. It’s hard to say if we pay more than Romney did before that, because, well, you know. It’s good to see a broader recognition that most of us are makers and that most of the nonmakers are seniors on Social Security and Medicare. What I tried to show in the article is that we’re takers too, even those of us with a comfortable income. We benefit not only from publicly<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78561&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/ddcaf430de0f1a59f27cc4ad614221d9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelgrunwald</media:title>
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		<title>How Mitt Romney&#8217;s Luck Ran Out</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/how-mitt-romneys-luck-ran-out/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/18/how-mitt-romneys-luck-ran-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78542</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mitt Romney's campaign has been star crossed, veering from one minor disaster to another. The latest example is the emergence of Romney's covertly recorded observation at a Florida fundraiser that the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes will never vote for him because they "believe they are victims" entitled to endless government support and by the way will never "take personal responsibility and care for their lives."<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78542&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/600_romney_video.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Mitt Romney</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Promising Change of All Kinds, Romney Campaign Plans More of the Same</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/17/promising-change-of-all-kinds-romney-campaign-plans-more-of-the-same/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/17/promising-change-of-all-kinds-romney-campaign-plans-more-of-the-same/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:27:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78488</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you heard? The Romney campaign is rebooting. After two weeks of slipping poll numbers, Mitt Romney&#8217;s advisers began the week by announcing the campaign would change course. But how?  Depending on which media account you&#8217;re reading, you&#8217;re liable to get a different answer. The New York Times says Romney will sharpen his message. The Washington Post indicates he will redouble his emphasis on the economy, while Buzzfeed reports that the campaign has decided the economy isn&#8217;t enough. Politico, whose dishy account of turbulence in Boston helped spur the switch, says the new strategy is to make the election &#8220;a referendum on &#8216;status quo vs. change&#8217;&#8221; &#8212; which, by definition, seems more like a choice than a referendum. Got it? The likeliest outcome of all these calls for change may be that little will change. Campaigns planning to recalibrate their tactics generally don&#8217;t advertise. So the promises to reshuffle the deck may reflect an effort to reset the race &#8212; acknowledging a rough patch so it can move on, assuaging conservative critics, dangling bait for the media &#8212; without actually changing much. It&#8217;s the opposite of the infamous Etch A Sketch maneuver. Instead of quietly wiping the slate clean, the chorus trumpeting a strategy shift lends cover to keep the status quo. On a &#8220;message call&#8221; the campaign held Monday morning with reporters, senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said the campaign would begin to zero in on the specifics of Romney&#8217;s policies, with a &#8220;new emphasis and renewed emphasis&#8221; on how they would help middle-class voters. “The timing is right, at this moment, to reinforce the specifics of the Romney plan for the middle class,&#8221; said Gillespie. The aftermath of a convention that focused on giving voters more information about Romney, he said, was a &#8220;natural time&#8221; to give them additional information about the polices the Republican nominee will promote. Gillespie said the campaign&#8217;s research suggests that voters know Romney has a slate of policies distinct from Obama&#8217;s but are eager to hear him explain the positive effects that will accrue: &#8220;If we make this change, how is it going to make my<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78488&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>Out on the Trail, Romney Broadens Foreign Policy Critique of Obama</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/14/out-on-the-trail-romney-broadens-foreign-policy-critique-of-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/14/out-on-the-trail-romney-broadens-foreign-policy-critique-of-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:45:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78387</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fairfax, Va. Returning to the campaign trail a day after his barbs at Barack Obama’s handling of the Middle Eastern attacks sparked recriminations, Mitt Romney amplified his criticism of Obama’s foreign policy, arguing the President had put the U.S. “at the mercy of events, instead of shaping events.” Romney kicked off his remarks in this bellwether Northern Virginia suburb by blasting Obama for reducing the might of the U.S. military. “We have to have a military second to none, and that&#8217;s so strong no one would ever think of testing it” Romney said. Obama, he argued, had erred in scaling back the country’s capacity to exert its strength around the world. (MORE: Romney Criticized for Political Turn After Ambassador’s Killing) “This president has done something I find very hard to understand,” Romney said.  “Ever since FDR, we’ve had the capacity to be engaged in two conflicts at once. And he’s saying, no &#8212; we’re going to cut that back to only one conflict.” The line drew applause from the crowd of some 2,700 gathered in a park across from a high school. But it was arguably an off-key note at a moment when even large factions of the Republican Party have grown weary of grinding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Romney’s withering attacks on the President’s handling of the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the deadly attacks on the temporary consulate in Libya on Tuesday make clear that he intends to take a hawkish position on foreign policy – a perch from which he can criticize Obama as a feckless apologist who has diminished America’s standing abroad. Romney, whose budget blueprint includes an increase in military funding, slammed the incumbent for proposing deep cuts to defense appropriation through a budget that slices spending and the sequester agreed to as part of the debt-limit deal. (MORE: Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Gamble) &#8220;If I’m President of the U.S., we will restore our military commitment and keep America the strongest military in the world,&#8221; he said. The world needs American<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78387&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mitt Romney</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/mitt-romney-2012-election/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_0913.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_0913.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/romney_0913.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Mitt Romney</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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