Romney's new foe: Batman's 'Bane'

This summer's much-anticiapted Hollywood blockbuster, "The Dark Knight Rises," is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, "Venom" gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney's former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.

"Bane" is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president's assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.

"It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood," said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. "Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society," he added.

As the Friday release date has neared, liberal blogs were the first to connect Batman's toughest foe with Romney's firm. But now even some conservatives, concerned Romney isn't fighting the Bain attacks hard enough, see a similarity in the epic DC Comics fight and the political campaign.

Conservative commentator Jed Babbin told Secrets, "Now we have the new Batman movie with super-villain Bane, the comic book bad guy who broke the Bat's back. How long will it take for the Obama campaign to link the two, making Romney the man who will break the back of the economy? Romney can't win if he's constantly on the defensive," he said.

Even GOP advisor Frank Luntz jumped into the fray. "Hollywood does it again," he told Secrets. "[Romney] had to know all this was coming and he should have done a lot more to prepare for it."

But conservative analyst Greg Muller doesn't buy the connection or the Bain attacks. "Democrats are truly living in fantasy land if they think the Bain story is anything more than a little summertime blues for Romney," he said. "The election will be a referendum on Obama socialism and the Obama economy. Wonder if the Batmobile was made in China."

Democratic strategist Karl Frisch suggests a Romney comparison instead to Mr. Burns, the devilish nuclear power plant owner on the Simpsons. "The similarities are endless."

And even while playing up the Bane-Bain tie, Lehane suggested that Romney is a weak version. "The 'Bain Romney' should at least endeavor to match the comic book Bane in at least one way: prove to be a worthy adversary. Bane never asked Batman to apologize--neither superheroes nor super villains nor candidates for president should ever ask for apologies from their opponents if they are to be taken serious," he said in a reference to Romney's demand of an apology from Obama for his Bain attacks.

ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; CONDI EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, 'Meet The VP' -- just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal.

And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice!
The timing of the announcement is now set for 'coming weeks'.

It was Condi who received two standing ovations at Romney's Utah retreat a few weeks ago, and everyone left with her name on their lips.

Rice made an extended argument for American leadership in the world.

In recent days, she emailed supporters:

"2012 is perhaps a turning point for the United States."

"The upcoming elections loom as one of the most important in my lifetime," she warned. "I'm very often asked to speak about our current foreign policy and the challenges that lie before us. However, we, as a country, are not going to be able to address any of those international challenges unless we first get our domestic house in order."

Obama Asks People Getting Married To Forgo Gifts...

Obama Asks People Getting Married To Forgo Gifts, Ask Their Guests To Donate To His Campaign Instead…


You can even register your wedding on his campaign website. Could he be any more pompous?

Obama's Harvard law professor says 'President MUST be defeated in 2012' (even though he's the man Barack used to have on speed dial)

* Roberto Unger, 65, is respected author and Brazilian politician
* Taught Obama about 'reinventing democracy' at Harvard Law School
* Professor was an adviser during the 2008 election campaign

By Daily Mail Reporter

A former professor of Barack Obama has turned against his one-time student and publicly urged voters not to re-elect him.

Roberto Unger posted a video on YouTube detailing the reasons why he believes the President does not deserve a second term in the White House.

Mr Unger, a prominent Brazilian politician and an adviser to Obama in 2008, said: 'President Obama must be defeated in the coming election. He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States.'

The 65-year-old academic was in frequent contact with Mr Obama on his Blackberry throughout the last election campaign but has since decided that he no longer agreed with the President's decisions.

His list of complaints against the President is a long one in the video entitled 'Beyond Obama'.

The esteemed philosopher is scathing of Mr Obama's plans to salvage America's ailing economy, saying that his policy solely consists of 'financial confidence and food stamps'.

He adds: 'He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.'

The politician admits that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the election 'there will be a cost... in judicial and administrative appointments'.

However his most barbed remarks he reserves for the Democrat leader saying that Mr Obama has 'evoked a politics of handholding, but no one changes the world without a struggle'.

His summary of the past four years is equally scathing: 'Give the bond markets what they want, bail out the reckless so long as they are also rich, use fiscal and monetary stimulus to make up for the absence of any consequential broadening of economic and educational opportunity, sweeten the pill of disempowerment with a touch of tax fairness, even though the effect of any such tax reform is sure to be modest.'

Most of Mr Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Mr Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.

And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.

Mr Unger argues: 'He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.'

He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims 'to put a human face on the programme of its adversaries'.

The professor concludes his video by saying: 'Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.'

Mr Unger is a renowned politician in his native Brazil. He has twice has run for president of Brazil and has served as Minister of Strategic Affairs.

Unger was one of the founding members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and drafted its founding manifesto.

He has also advised on politics throughout Latin America.

The professor is a respected author having published dozens of books on economics, philosophy and politics.

In philosophy, his arguments are said to focus on some the greatest problems of the human existence.

The video, which was posted three weeks ago, has been viewed 22,000 times.

Mr Unger has taught at Harvard Law since 1976.

Obama studied jurisprudence and reinventing democracy with the professor. 

The President attended Harvard Law School in 1988 and was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year.

Last week Obama announced that young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally will no longer be deported.

The Obama administration said the policy change announced on Friday will affect as many as 800,000 qualified immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation.

The President also came in for sharp criticism last week after he combined fundraising events with an official event - and charged the bill to the taxpayer.

Obama raised a total of $4.5million at the fundraisers, one at Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker's house and the other at the five-star Plaza Hotel.

However, the President's re-election campaign will not have to pay the full cost of his jaunt to the Big Apple, because he scheduled a short visit to the World Trade Center site.

Obama Backs Away From ‘Fine’ Comment

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

President Obama on Friday afternoon backed away from his earlier comments that the “private sector is doing fine,” telling reporters that he does not believe the economy is doing fine.

“That’s precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference,” Mr. Obama said in brief remarks to reporters during a meeting with the visiting Philippines president.

Republicans had seized on comments Mr. Obama made during an earlier news conference, in which he repeatedly made the point that hiring at private businesses is doing well, while hiring by state and local government is not.

“The private sector is doing fine,” Mr. Obama said at the news conference.

But by later in the day, Mr. Obama had decided to emphasize that he does not believe that the overall economy is doing fine, as Republicans were trying to suggest.

“Listen, it is absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine,” he said. He suggested that Republicans had misstated his words from earlier in the day.

“I think if you look at what I said this morning, what I’ve been saying consistently over the last year, we’ve actually seen some good momentum in the private sector,” he said. “There’s been 4.3 million jobs created, 800,000 this year alone, record corporate profits.”

He added: “And so that has not been the biggest drag on the economy.”

Mr. Obama said the economy “needs to be strengthened,” adding that “I believe that there are a lot of Americans who are hurting right now, which is what I’ve been saying for the last year, two years, three years, what I’ve been saying since I came into office.”

Will Bilderberg elect the next US president?

Around 150 of the world’s elite will meet outside of Washington, DC this week at the annual Bilderberg Conference, and although the agenda isn’t advertised to the public, some sources are already speaking out about what this year might bring.

Officially, the details of each Bilderberg Conference aren’t anything its members will go on the record to reveal. According to spectators that have kept a close eye on the event’s happenings each year, however, the annual conference has a reputation for being a kingmaker — and an elusive and exclusive one at that.

Speaking to RT earlier this month, radio host Alex Jones shared his expectations for the coming conference. According to the journalist, “Should the elite get behind Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?” is a question that he expects to be brought up for discussion. “Both men are bought and paid for by the same financial interests, and so the discussion will be which candidate can basically con the American people to lay down the tyranny for another four years.”

But does the biggest election of 2012 really rely that much on a mysterious meeting? Many people will tell you yes, and they are often willing to provide evidence to explain. Before becoming household names, politicians such as former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both attended Bilderberg conferences in the years before being elected to the Oval Office. Tony Blair was on hand at the 1993 gala before becoming prime minister of England in 1997, and the 2008 conference is believed to be the catalyst for that year’s US presidential election: rumors suggest that attendees settling on backing Barack Obama for the Democratic Party nomination at that year’s event, only for contender Hillary Clinton to bow out two days later.

“For an entire day, the media in Virginia and in DC saying, ‘Where’s Obama? Where’s Obama?’ And we were there saying he’s inside, the secret service is there,” Alex Jones recalls of the 2004 conference to RT.

As with 2004, this year's Bilderberg Conference will be held at the Chantilly, Virginia Westfield Marriott, and employees there are already privy to the fact that Jones will be ready to scrutinize every action he can witness from the grounds: on Tuesday, his reservation at the establishment was revoked and he was informed that he banned from the hotel; hours later, Jones’ Prison Planet website revealed that “all guests had been kicked out of the hotel, and offered one night’s accommodation at the Residence Inn in Chantilly (also Marriott owned).”

“Policy is being set there and this is one of the most elite meetings out there,” Jones told RT. That, many fear, is precisely why those close to the conference don’t want outsiders to have an inside scoop.

This year Jones expects details of the US presidential election to obviously be discussed, but perhaps the agenda item most interesting to many involves only one side of the race: rumors are quickly evolving about who and how the GOP will go about selecting a vice presidential nominee to run alongside their candidate of choice, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Al Kamen, a writer at the Washington Post, recently compared a recent speech from Senator Marco Rubio with one given at the 2004 Bilderberg Conference by John Edwards — which some say was instrumental in securing the VP nod back in 2004. The rumors of  Bilderberg being a launching pad for a Rubio run under Romney at this week’s conference has since been spun by reporters at Politico, Salon and elsewhere.