"Romney campaign comes up with worst talking point ever."

[Chakravartin]

http://www.businessinsider.com/ed-gilles...ely-2012-7

"There may have been a thought at the time that it could be part-time," Gillespie said, when Crowley asked him about Romney's leave of absence. "It was not part-time. The Olympics was in a shambles. The International Olympic Committee was going to pull the Olympics from the United States of America, which would have been a huge embarrassment.

"He took a leave of absence and in fact, ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February 1999 as a result."

---

Maybe he can be president retroactively.

[OWC Jamie]

That "talking point" is 10 years old.

Straight from the Ma governors race.

Stayed on at Staples and left the lights on in Belmont often enough to claim Ma residency.

[Ted King]

The part up to the retroactive retirement bit is plausible on the surface*, but the "retired reactively" part is at least pretty weak - IMHO, actually really lame.

*The explanation about Romney thinking he would still be part-time actively involved at Bain when he went to the Olympics and then found himself unable to be involved at all just doesn't pass the smell test. Here's a guy who developed this company and wants to say that he had a crucial role in its success, but we're supposed to believe that he would keep the title and actual power to determine investment policy at Bain and blithely just let it all go unused even after initially making plans to be at least part-time involved in Bain. I don't buy it. I think he was at least approving any changes in what kinds of firms they would invest in - and that includes that I think he approved the move into investing in firms that did a lot of outsourcing. That wasn't some grubby little detail he could leave to underlings to determine, I'm sure he would have had insisted that he would have to sign off on that kind of change in investment policy.

I also wonder if there was some income/tax advantage in him remaining CEO of Bain. If so, the "retired retroactively" line would be more than lame - it would be completely misleading.

[beagledave]

I'm retroactively a virgin.

[Black]

beagledave wrote:
I'm retroactively a virgin.

Wouldn't that depend on what the meaning of the word "is" is?

[Pops]

Black wrote:
[quote=beagledave]
I'm retroactively a virgin.

Wouldn't that depend on what the meaning of the word "is" is? Very good.
:ohsnap:

[Avenger]

As much as Romney says I am not going to apologize for this or that, his surrogates seem to be doing just that. Gillespie was also at a loss explaining Romney's position on the Olympic uniforms controversy. Now look what you have done. 80,000 jobs last month and we are talking about when Romney left or who sews what shirts.

[Black]

Avenger wrote:
As much as Romney says I am not going to apologize for this or that, his surrogates seem to be doing just that. Gillespie was also at a loss explaining Romney's position on the Olympic uniforms controversy. Now look what you have done. 80,000 jobs last month and we are talking about when Romney left or who sews what shirts.

As summarized in another thread, it seems the GOP couldn't be bothered this time around to have some sort of vetting process in place.

[Lemon Drop]

Has this guy Ed Gillespie actually pulled a two-fer and slain both of Romney's key bragging points: Bain and his leadership of the SLC Olympics?

Yes, I think he has.

Romney is now retroactively losing this vanity bid for President.

[Lemon Drop]

Wow not even Bill Kristol has Romney's back.

"He should release the tax returns tomorrow. It's crazy," Kristol said on "Fox News Sunday." "You gotta release six, eight, 10 years of back tax returns. Take the hit for a day or two."

Yeah but, when everyone sees that 15% is actually the highest rate Romney has paid on taxes, and how much he's got overseas, and how much he's been making at Bain while they were outsourcing and laying off workers, although he was "retroactively retired," it's not going to go well.
And gee if there aren't any concerns, we know we'd already have those returns in the public record.

He had time to make his 2010 and 2011 returns acceptable for prime time, but he can't "retroactively" refile those other ones.