Akin’s Sexist Remark, Samuel L. Jackson’s ‘WTFU’ Obama Ad, and More

Posted on Sep 27, 2012

Caught Again on Tape: Mother Jones’ David Corn—the man who first reported on Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remark that was secretly videotaped during a fundraiser in May—has unearthed more video that could potentially be another blow to the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign. The footage, from 1985, shows Romney discussing the mission of Bain, which he said included buying stakes in businesses so the private equity firm could “harvest them at a significant profit.” The remark is important because Romney has touted his business experience throughout the campaign as a means to show how he is qualified to fix the economy and create jobs. (Read more)

Romney Debate Strategy: Mitt Romney will attempt to play the role of “fact checker” next week when he faces Barack Obama in the first presidential debate. Not sure exactly how well that will sit with Republicans, some of whom are on record saying they don’t believe in fact checks (or was that just facts?). (Read more)

Latest Forecast: Nate Silver of The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog says there’s a roughly 20 percent chance that Mitt Romney could win the election. However, according to his forecast, there’s also a 20 percent chance that Barack Obama could defeat Romney by a similar—or even larger—margin than he beat John McCain in 2008. (Read more)

Oops, He Did It Again: If GOP Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin is trying to win back female voters after his controversial “legitimate rape” comments, then this remark he made about his opponent, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, surely will not help his cause. In an interview with The Kansas City Star, Akin said of his challenger, “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike [in 2006], but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.” If, on the other hand, Akin is purposely trying to lose the election to McCaskill, consider this latest statement a resounding success. (Read more)

The Best of Akin: And just in case you thought Todd Akin made crazy remarks only about rape and women, think again. The Huffington Post has compiled a video of his “greatest hits” (so to speak), some of which will undoubtedly be featured in future political ads to help defeat the GOP Senate candidate. (Read more)

One More Time: Bill Clinton told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Tuesday night that he might be able to run for president again, just not in the U.S. The former president, who evidently has given some thought to this, claimed he is eligible to run for the leadership position in Ireland or France. Unfortunately for Clinton, Foreign Policy looked into his claim and discovered that, no, he can’t actually run for president in either of those countries. (Read more)

Grass Roots: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is retiring from Congress once his term is up, admitted to CNN during a discussion about legalizing marijuana that he once tried a pot brownie and ... it made him sleepy. Frank, for the record, supports legalizing and taxing marijuana. (Read more)

Video of the Day: Actor Samuel L. Jackson is out with a new political ad in which he makes it crystal clear that he’s pro-Obama. Jackson stars in the profanity-laced online video in which he urges voters to take a good look at the presidential candidates and “wake the f**k up.” 

Warning: the language in this video makes it NSFW (at least, not without a good pair of headphones).

—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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