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Subscribe to RSSMitt Romney was at his New Hampshire vacation home on a summer night in 2006 when 26 tons of concrete ceiling panels in one of Boston's Big Dig highway tunnels collapsed. The debris crushed a car and killed a female passenger.
Romney, then in his final year as Massachusetts governor, dashed back to Boston and immersed himself in the crisis.
His response offers insights into what kind of leader the expected Republican nominee would be if elected president. Romney has made his management skills a major selling point in his campaign.
Yet Romney's stiffest leadership test as governor produced mixed results.
He was praised, even by some Democrats, for his energetic, take-charge management style. But he also drew criticism for playing to the media and dodging personal blame.
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Can you say "ETCH-A-SKETCH"?
Romney broke the Record for Flip Flopping !
Maybe I was/am wrong about Romney...maybe he pefectly suited for President
Courtesy of the GOP TeaNut Baggers and the Flip Flopper the 1% is getting Richer, Mitt said trickle down is working !
So I guess the best job for Mitt is barber for gays - a hair-raising stylist.
Romney is a cynical political hack who is never going to convince the American people he is worthy of their votes. He will flip flop his way to failure in November.
We can only hope, Sailcat. But, unfortunately, meaningless soundbites mean a lot to a lot of voters. That's why Romney is polling so close to our President.
Pretty worthless article...I'd like to see more details about exactly what he did after the incident.
As to Romney, I think people on this board are kidding themselves if they think there is no support for him.
Also, the flip flop argument won't go far because Obama has done his own flips. As to my opinion, I have nothing against a politician changing their mind as they learn new information - to me, that's a good quality.
Wow... is it just me or was this the lamest piece of "news" I've ever read. There's nothing really here...
@ TB...it depends...was it your first visit to MSNBC
Yeah, these 7 sentences really gave me an in-depth sense of what happened, what Romney did, the basis for others' reactions and why its important. Now that is the level of quality reporting I've come to expect from the AP.
Okay, tunnel collapses and kills a person, Romney does what most Governor's would do and tries to take a leadership role.
While I will not vote for Romney this fall, and don't endorse his policies, the problem here in this article is what?
Eric, could not have said it better myself. These eight sentences all seem to be written by eight different people making 16 different points.
I thought the point was very clear. Hmm.
Pretty crappy article. Sounds like they are just throwing mud on the wall to see if it sticks. when i first saw the headline i thought they were going to go into his leadership skills when it comes to the Big Dig. Specifically if he had anything to do with the speed (or lack thereof) in which the tunnel took to take place, the cost or cost saving measures he might have taken, etc.. I do believe though that the tunnel began construction prior to Romney taking office.
Obama 2012
Dodging personal blame....
For the failure of a piece of construction that he did not build, design, or inspect.?.?.?
How on Earth could anyone BLAME him for that tragedy?
When will people stop trying to BLAME the government for construction failures? The idea that municipal governments should take responsibility for all architectural and structural designs and construction is becoming an enormous drag on our economy.
Lets blame the people that built it or designed it.
Patriotic American U.S.A....Courtesy of the GOP TeaNut Baggers and the Flip Flopper the 1% is getting Richer, Mitt said trickle down is working !
It must be working I cannot seem to get that last little drop to shake out it always ends up in my skivvies.
The problem is that Mitt was the executive when this project was designed and implemented. The question was, was budget cutting responsible for the poor construction? The problem for us now is that he does not want to invest in infrastructure. The article is deplorably lacking in information.
NC, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried.
Planning for the Big Dig as a project officially began in 1982, with environmental impact studies starting in 1983. After years of extensive lobbying for federal dollars, a 1987 public works bill appropriating funding for the Big Dig was passed by U.S. Congress, but it was subsequently vetoed by President Ronald Reagan as being too expensive. When Congress overrode his veto, the project had its green light and ground was first broken in 1991.[16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig#Early_planning
Spin all you want for Obama but we all know you are full of lies.
Romney's top campaign advisor just told Adrea Mitchell on MSNBC he thought Romney's 30-40,000 jobs created at Bain is more than this administration has realized for the nation.
This is the problem I have with folks who want to lie in the face of facts. You can convince me with substance and facts, but I HATE LIARS and they will never gain my support that way.
Give me facts or STFU!!!
BTW- Unemployment is now down in 2/3 of the country.
Obama 2012
Sure, that reminds me of when John McCain, then Republican Nominee for POTUS, ran back to D.C. when Bush was presiding over the Economic Collapse of the entire United States Economy, and then didn't have a single clue as to what to actually do about it, so McCain just went right back to campaigning!
Obama/Biden 2012
So Romney "immersed himself." What does that mean? That in itself does not say anything about his leadership. What did he do? Once again MSNBC has printed a story lacking in facts. I still don't see anything in Romney's past that can compare to what the president has done to give Al Queda a serious thumping this last three years. The president did rather well with those pirates as well. If Romney's "immersion" is all you have, that doesn't say much, does it?
Maybe had Mitt and the rest of the Republicans spent money to repair the infrastructure here in the US the tunnel wouldn’t have collapsed and a woman wouldn’t have died just like the bridge collapse on the I-35 that
claimed 14 lives…but who cares just as long as Defense gets their budget and the defense contractors get their slice of the pie and the Republicans can give tax cuts to the 1%...after all we’re expendable!
Why the heck would Romney take personal blame for the event??!! Unless he's a Master Engineer that personally supervised the entire build from start to finish- in 1982 no less- he's not the one who screwed it up!! THAT would be the builders and foreman. Even the Dems thought he did a good job during the crisis.
Funny how all the libs on ths board are jumping on the bandwagon...
But like our buddy Rahmsays: "Never let a good crisis go to waste..."
Damned if you do, and damned if you don't!
A buddy of mine got shot up in Vietnam, came home , went to college, and worked hard enough to become a very successful salesperson. He told me something that seems to fit here. He said when he used to come into the bar, he'd buy a round for the house and some people would say "there's that rich SOB showing off how much money he's got". He heard about those comments and quit buying the house a round when he came in. And sure enough those same people started saying "there's that rich SOB with all that money and won't even buy a round"!
One can only laugh!
Elliot - Well, I'm glad you put the facts up then. I'm afraid I was relying on my memory of the time when the event occurred. I admit I didn't verify that before posting. My bad. Thanks for setting me straight. And fairly kindly as well, given your normal posts. But I don't reach back that far often as my sole source for facts, and I do normally base my comments on research. I was lax.
This article is a ripoff and might I add greatly truncated article that was posted on Foxnews. The following is alink to the full article. It's not a flattering as I would like but it does give you a much more comprehensive picture.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/21/romney-faced-leadership-test-in-big-dig-tragedy/
That's a faster response than any response that Obama has made to anything.
Our president has truly proven leadership. Imagine dealing with world issues ... let alone the republicans and congress. Am sure mittens would make a fine president but damned if I'll vote for him. Republicans have zero credibility with me. ZERO!
Romney is all about the smell of Money !
I think now it's all about EGO as he has millions and millions of dollars. If he likes excitment I think he should rush on over to a Afgan Firefight with our soldiers and see if he can work the media there. By the way did Romney support the "wars on terrorism"?
Did Bain build the tunnel?
@Patriotic American U.S.A.#2: Agree. If Romney is ever elected president the rest of us will be about the smell of outhouses.
What no "Brownie" to say good job to? He was using the crisis to campaign for President. He has been campaigning forever and the majority of Republicans still don't like him. They will not admit that Mitt is a bad candidate and without personality or permanent ideas.
Hurry and buy your tickets to Mitt Romney's dog & clown show, door prizes of Mitt puppets made in China if you donate your 401K to the flip flopper's campaign fund !
Romney, "I'm pro safety but against infrastructure development".
Romney has a Mexico accent, what's up with that ?
I demand to see Romney's birth certificate. Why is the Republican National Committee hiding it from us. We have the right to see it, NOW! This stonewalling of critical information regarding Romney's past is proof that the RNC is a communist organization based in Yemen and run by gay mullas!
Vote for REAL Americans - Obama/Biden 2012!
What's up with that Mexico accent Romney has, could it be the flip flop flopper is hiding his illegal immigration !
tex2c:
You know it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that started the birther movement, right?
Romney is an illegal disguised in business drag!
So, AF, is it also Hillary that is continuing to make this non-issue seem to be important? Sleazy politics like the Birther movement and the Swift Boat thugs are way out on the fringe of reality but they play well to the ignorant, right? Or should I have left out the comma and said ignorant right?
What is the article trying to say, that he showed leadership during his tenure as governor?
What was the test, did he pass it or not, what did he do after rushing back from vacation...
Exactly, I would like to think that any governor would make the emergency trip back, especially when on vacation. So the real question is, What did he do besides showing up?
First thing he did was put the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the CD player and called in his wives to tell them he was back in town. Next came the martinis. After that he could not remember!
Oh, yea, he called his brokerage to find out what investment changes in construction companies he could make to optimize the profits. We now know that he made those calls before the martinis!
Hey tex2c, You forgot to remove the "M" in the middle of Mormon "Out"
"playing to the media and dodging personal blame."
Is anyone surprised?
No serious discussion here. Signing off.
Mitt Romney + Etch A Sketch = Empty Suit !
He did nothing after that accident to hold anyone accountable. As a resident of Mass., I can state with absolute certainty that Romney was a "hands off," absentee governor. That's why he was in NH to begin with. He was the last of four consecutive Republican governors who had oversight of the Big Dig with its massive cost overruns and shoddy workmanship. He was quite unpopular after his only term and would never have been re-elected. Not that he cared, he only need the "Governor" label to slap on his resume when running for higher office.
Mitt showed leadership? His actions were pretty much tied to his presidential ambition getting media attention walking through the tunnel. No mention of course of the shoddy design and massive graft that took place during this project under line of republican governors and democratic legislature.
Let me share a little secret with you, the Mitt flip flop is not Presidential Material !
I am not voting for Mitt Romney or Barrack Obama.
They are one and the same in so many respects.
They both do the flip-flop.
They both say they are job creators.
They both say they have the answer to solve the U.S.A.'s problems.
One difference: One says he will raise taxes, the other says he will lower taxes.
Neither one should be considered presidential material in my opinion.
Mitt should be FIT as a baseball commissioner - this Mitt is for you.
Certainly is rich and arrogant enough.
This article is so devoid of information it's embarrasing. There's nothing in five paragraphs that gives me any real clue as to how to judge Romney on this one chapter in his political career. (big deal: he was on vacation, in summer, when it happened. People take vacations in summer. I don't live in Mass. so I guess I don't know how common of an occurrence this was....)
Way to rip this off the AP wire and post it with no additional investigative reporting. Ugh.
Agreed, this is a horrible, pointless article.
Playing to the media? There is no worse offender than our current Faker in Chief - the guy doesnt scratch his nose unless there is a camera nearby and a precooked story of how obama "scratches his nose for a cause" to go along with it.
I love those that accuse Mitt Romney of flip flops.... all I have to say is gay marriage...conversation over.
Lets move on to blatant lies shall we. Obismal, a constitution lawyer says it would be unprecedented and extraordinary for the SCOTUS to over turn a law duly constituted by t congress... there is no other way to characterize this but a bold faced lie.
How about an earlier one, while speaking to a black group (a group he does not really need to lie to), he went on to say his parents met at the Selma demonstrations, and how 9 months later a little barack obama was born.... only trouble is, he was 4 years old when Selma happened.
How about on March 27 in NC, he said his new regulations would save the average American family $8,000 a year in gas. Umm, the average American family pays well under 4,000 a year in gas.... how is this not a bold faced lie.
A record of failure, a willingness to lie to anyone, how anyone can still vote for him is astounding.
President Obama's view on some subjects evolves to consideration and then change. Mitt Romney cannot claim the same process because he is part of the flat earth party that does not believe in evolution. Creationism is the verbatim view of the Bible that makes Mitt a flip flopper when he tries to secure moderate and independent voters. Is Mitt lying to his base or just trying to fool the middle? Probably both.
Is this supposed to be an article. Lazy journalists much?
..a slow newsday?
Was Romney the design engineer?
Was Romney the construction supervisor?
Was Romney the maintenance foreman?
Just exactly how was Romney "personally" to blame for the tunnel collapse?
Exactly my question too, Martha. I can't stand the guy, and think putting the Republikkkans in power would be the death of America. But how is he personally responsible? Did he hold any of those positions?
C'mon people, articles like this do no good, and just make our side look bad.
We will win with truth and logic (things the Right has no concept of, and can't understand), not lies and deceit. Those are their specialties, not ours.
OK. I'll bite. How did he do?
So how is OUR President doing showing Leadership. His Democrat Senate has not had a budget in more than three years. He has eun up more debt in 3 years than our big spending President Bush did in 8 years. He promised we would have this unemployment problem under control, so he changed the way it is reported and every Thursday the Mondays unemployment numbers are revised upwards. He was going toclose the base in Cuba. Don't give him credit for getting us out of iraq, we left right on time with president Buhes orders. Don't give hiom credit for getting Osama he gave the commander on the ground to do what was best. As far as I can see this President has been a failure under crisis. If you want him for 4 more years give us a Republican House and Sentnat, at least that way no further damage will be done.
He has eun up more debt in 3 years than our big spending President Bush did in 8 years.
This is BS! Bush started his first budget in 2001 with $5.8T in debt. He ended his last budget in Sept, 2009 with $11.9T in debt. That is an increase of $6.1T over 8 years. Obama started his first budget in Oct, 2009 with $11.9T in debt, we are now at $15.5T in debt. That's an increase of $3.6T in ~3 years.
Don't give him credit for getting us out of iraq, we left right on time with president Buhes orders.
And Bush was sooo good at following his tiemtables when he was dealing with the wars, wasn't he? Face it, Bush would have had us there another 10 years to fatten Halliburton's coffers more.
Don't give hiom credit for getting Osama he gave the commander on the ground to do what was best.
Ah, more BS! Bush wasn't looking very hard for Osama. Bush didn't care about finding Osama. To Bush, Osama did nothing more than provide Bush with the excuse he needed to invade Iraq. Hell, he even interrupted the legitimate war in Afghanistan to pursure war based on lies in Iraq (thus extending the war in Afghanistan to a period much, much longer than it needed to be!). Obama put the emphasis back on finidng Osama. He tasked the security agencies with it, gave them a purpose and a mission and, by God they found him! In fact, they found him hiding in the country that Bush touted as our greatest ally in the War on Terror. They found him hiding in a country that Bush gave $18B since the 9/11 attacks. How they must have laughed at us - harboring our most wanted fugitive while cashing our checks!
That is it? Some fine reporting there AP!!!
This news is proof that the liberal media has no enthusiam to perform high-tech lynching of an unexciting Romney - Mitt is not the ideal victim liberal media covets.
Mitt is what he is, a flip flopping Troll !
Romney does have good family values, at a time of war Mitt said all his sons will stay home and guard his money ! Put a tin hat on the flip flopper.
At least he didn't blame Bush thats a major sign of leadership.
Don't beat around the Bushes -
It's still Bush's fault - Bushy tale was president when the incident happened (2006). The highway tunnel would not have collapsed if Bush had not been president.
Slow day for &bc. How about vetting Buckwheat that should be news worthy for the next 7 months. Oh thats right &bc can't handle the truth about there messiah.
Where is the rest of this article? They could at least have had links to articles at the time.
What a desperate Romney attack by the media...........LOL BORING.
Polls not boding well for the "Promised One" in the Swinging States at all. One and Done!
Is this an Associated Press article or PATRIOTIC AMERICAN U.S.A ' s personal forum. I see you bad mouthing Romney, why don't you tell us who your perfect candidate is?...