Romney didn't build the 2002 Olympics

[Star]

Romney didn't save the 2002 Olympics -- American socialism saved the 2002 Olympics.



Mitt Romney has staked his entire presidential campaign on two things: his track record at Bain Capital and his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His Bain record has received a fair bit of coverage, and Romney has been reduced to accusing his critics of being Communist tyrants. His record with the Olympics has been largely ignored, however—until now. Although Romney rails on a daily basis against President Obama's auto bailout and against Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich 's earmarking, yesterday's Washington Post reminded us that as head of the Olympic games, Romney bragged about lobbying the federal government to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the winter games. And this morning the Democratic National Committee released the video at the top of this post highlighting the massive federal spending—effectively a bailout—that went into saving the 2002 games.

It's a very funny video, particularly the segment in which John McCain lambasts the Salt Lake City "boondoggle," but it has a serious point: when Mitt Romney claims credit for saving the winter Olympics, the part he leaves out is that taxpayers footed the bill. The real credit should go to the American public. His main accomplishment was that he was an effective lobbyist for the games. And when he attacks the federal government now for what he calls "crony capitalism," what he's really attacking is the very same thing that he depended on just ten years ago.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY29UIpGhAs"]The Olympic Bailout - YouTube[/ame]​

 

[Uncensored2008]

So, you thought Romney was supposed to pay for the Olympics out of his own pocket, then?

I realize that leftism is the result of mental retardation, but this thread is beyond the pale...

 

[Warrior102]

Romney didn't save the 2002 Olympics -- American socialism saved the 2002 Olympics.



Mitt Romney has staked his entire presidential campaign on two things: his track record at Bain Capital and his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His Bain record has received a fair bit of coverage, and Romney has been reduced to accusing his critics of being Communist tyrants. His record with the Olympics has been largely ignored, however—until now. Although Romney rails on a daily basis against President Obama's auto bailout and against Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich 's earmarking, yesterday's Washington Post reminded us that as head of the Olympic games, Romney bragged about lobbying the federal government to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the winter games. And this morning the Democratic National Committee released the video at the top of this post highlighting the massive federal spending—effectively a bailout—that went into saving the 2002 games.

It's a very funny video, particularly the segment in which John McCain lambasts the Salt Lake City "boondoggle," but it has a serious point: when Mitt Romney claims credit for saving the winter Olympics, the part he leaves out is that taxpayers footed the bill. The real credit should go to the American public. His main accomplishment was that he was an effective lobbyist for the games. And when he attacks the federal government now for what he calls "crony capitalism," what he's really attacking is the very same thing that he depended on just ten years ago.

The Olympic Bailout - YouTube​

Shuddup

 

[Dick Tuck]

So, you thought Romney was supposed to pay for the Olympics out of his own pocket, then?

I realize that leftism is the result of mental retardation, but this thread is beyond the pale...

No moron, he was expected to get private sector contributions.

 

[Stephanie]

omg, the friggen DAILYKOS

And since when is Romney staking his ENTIRE campaign on two things?

now I go laugh

 

[techieny]

You take the gold for idiocy sans the bouquet !

 

[tyroneweaver]

I lived in SLC . I also remember how honest mitt was about how Olympics were chosen and the bribery going on
mitt exposed a lot of the bad stuff that was going on about Olympics
I think he even got some of the selection committee fired

 

[Uncensored2008]

No moron, he was expected to get private sector contributions.

ROFL

Izzatrite? For the entire Olympics?

The desperation of you leftists is thick as concrete....

{One can argue whether it’s appropriate to include the $1.1 billion that may or may not have been sent to Salt Lake City without the Olympics in the total tally of the costs of the 2002 games. But when the DNC cites the $1.3 billion for the 2002 games, it compares it to $75 million for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The federal government spent $78 million in direct costs for the 1984 Olympics as opposed to $342 million in direct costs for the 2002 Olympics.

One other caveat, the GAO report notes that the federal government’s share of the total overall direct cost of hosting Olympic Games in U.S. cities generally decreased over time, from a high of 50 percent for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., to 8 percent for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. For the Salt Lake City Games, the federal government share was 18 percent.}

FactCheck.org : Slaloming Through Olympic Facts

 

[Star]

No moron, he was expected to get private sector contributions.

ROFL

Izzatrite? For the entire Olympics?

The desperation of you leftists is thick as concrete....

{One can argue whether it’s appropriate to include the $1.1 billion that may or may not have been sent to Salt Lake City without the Olympics in the total tally of the costs of the 2002 games. But when the DNC cites the $1.3 billion for the 2002 games, it compares it to $75 million for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The federal government spent $78 million in direct costs for the 1984 Olympics as opposed to $342 million in direct costs for the 2002 Olympics.

One other caveat, the GAO report notes that the federal government’s share of the total overall direct cost of hosting Olympic Games in U.S. cities generally decreased over time, from a high of 50 percent for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., to 8 percent for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. For the Salt Lake City Games, the federal government share was 18 percent.}

FactCheck.org : Slaloming Through Olympic Facts

"he [Romney] just won't mention the role that federal funding played."


IOW's Republicans are OK with a registered lobbyist scoring billions of taxpayer dollars that were then channeled into the hands of Romney cronies/pals to build/upgrade permanent infrastructure in Utah?


Romney claims the 2002 Olympic Games were a success, in part because they were profitable -- huh? really? OK, OK, now I get it, in typical Bain/Romney fashion, he screwed the taxpayers/we the people out of their money, moved the money to his contractor pals, who built permanent infrastructure in the Romney family's home state of Utah then-----then claims to have made a profit-----made a profit for who, certainly not the taxpayer. That scenario sounds an awful lot like how Bain/Romney became uber-wealthy.


In Romneyworld leaving the little people/taxpayer holding the bag is-----is in a word "profit".




Even the rightwing Washington Examiner says:


July 26, 2012

Mitt Romney likes to remind voters that he saved the 2002 winter Olympics from the "shadows of scandal," but he rarely mentions that his success was made possible, at least in part, by $1 billion in funding from the federal government.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and self-described deficit hawk was hired in 1999 to run the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City after a bribery scandal threatened the games.

Romney, who is now visiting the opening of the London Olympics, subsequently registered as a lobbyist for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and secured $342 million in direct funding from the federal government and another $1.1 billion in indirect financing from Washington.

In Romney's book "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games," Romney describes in a chapter entitled "Funds from the Feds" how he lobbied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for funding, saying he "would need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal support from a long list of departments."

"No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn't have games without the support of the federal government," Romney wrote.

Among the taxpayer-funded expenditures was $33,000 for an Olympic horse adoption program and $55,000 for the Department of Justice to assess racial tension in Salt Lake City, according to a Government Accountability Office report. More than half of the funding went to security, drug testing and shuttle buses.

McCain later called the Olympics "an incredible pork-barrel project for Salt Lake City and its environs."
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a Democrat who worked with Romney to secure the federal funding, said security was a serious concern in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"This was the largest public event in this country since 9/11 and we wanted to make sure things went along smoothly," Anderson told MSNBC. The funding also helped the city pay to build highways and a light-rail line.
"I really think it's very hypocritical" for Romney to now say he's against federal earmarks like those used to fund the Olympics, Anderson said.

Romney has railed against Obama for cheerleading public investments in the nation's infrastructure when federal debt is at an all-time high. He has pledged to ban congressional earmarks if elected president in November.
"I think [earmarks open] the door to excessive spending, spending on projects that don't need to be done," Romney said during a Republican primary debate in February. The Olympics, however, are an exception, he added.

"In the history of the Olympic movement, the federal government has always provided the transportation and security," he said. "So we came to the federal government asking for help on transportation and security."

All told, the 2002 Olympics were seen as a major success, so Romney will continue touting that accomplishment -- he just won't mention the role that federal funding played.


✄snip>

 

[courseofhistory]

So, you thought Romney was supposed to pay for the Olympics out of his own pocket, then?

I realize that leftism is the result of mental retardation, but this thread is beyond the pale...

Isn't that what he and his followers believe? Gut government spending and pay for whatever you need out of your own pocket. Bailoouts suck. Government sucks. Handouts suck (and that's what the Olympics bailout was). Suck, suck, suck. Everything sucks that isn't republican dogma! Suck it up peons!

 

[Stephanie]

No moron, he was expected to get private sector contributions.

ROFL

Izzatrite? For the entire Olympics?

The desperation of you leftists is thick as concrete....

{One can argue whether it’s appropriate to include the $1.1 billion that may or may not have been sent to Salt Lake City without the Olympics in the total tally of the costs of the 2002 games. But when the DNC cites the $1.3 billion for the 2002 games, it compares it to $75 million for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The federal government spent $78 million in direct costs for the 1984 Olympics as opposed to $342 million in direct costs for the 2002 Olympics.

One other caveat, the GAO report notes that the federal government’s share of the total overall direct cost of hosting Olympic Games in U.S. cities generally decreased over time, from a high of 50 percent for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., to 8 percent for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. For the Salt Lake City Games, the federal government share was 18 percent.}

FactCheck.org : Slaloming Through Olympic Facts

"he [Romney] just won't mention the role that federal funding played."


IOW's Republicans are OK with a registered lobbyist scoring billions of taxpayer dollars that were then channeled into the hands of Romney cronies/pals to build/upgrade permanent infrastructure in Utah?


Romney claims the 2002 Olympic Games were a success, in part because they were profitable -- huh? really? OK, OK, now I get it, in typical Bain/Romney fashion, he screwed the taxpayers/we the people out of their money, moved the money to his contractor pals, who built permanent infrastructure in the Romney family's home state of Utah then-----then claims to have made a profit-----made a profit for who, certainly not the taxpayer. That scenario sounds an awful lot like how Bain/Romney became uber-wealthy.


In Romneyworld leaving the little people/taxpayer holding the bag is-----is in a word "profit".




Even the rightwing Washington Examiner says:


July 26, 2012

Mitt Romney likes to remind voters that he saved the 2002 winter Olympics from the "shadows of scandal," but he rarely mentions that his success was made possible, at least in part, by $1 billion in funding from the federal government.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and self-described deficit hawk was hired in 1999 to run the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City after a bribery scandal threatened the games.

Romney, who is now visiting the opening of the London Olympics, subsequently registered as a lobbyist for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and secured $342 million in direct funding from the federal government and another $1.1 billion in indirect financing from Washington.

In Romney's book "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games," Romney describes in a chapter entitled "Funds from the Feds" how he lobbied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for funding, saying he "would need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal support from a long list of departments."

"No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn't have games without the support of the federal government," Romney wrote.

Among the taxpayer-funded expenditures was $33,000 for an Olympic horse adoption program and $55,000 for the Department of Justice to assess racial tension in Salt Lake City, according to a Government Accountability Office report. More than half of the funding went to security, drug testing and shuttle buses.

McCain later called the Olympics "an incredible pork-barrel project for Salt Lake City and its environs."
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a Democrat who worked with Romney to secure the federal funding, said security was a serious concern in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"This was the largest public event in this country since 9/11 and we wanted to make sure things went along smoothly," Anderson told MSNBC. The funding also helped the city pay to build highways and a light-rail line.
"I really think it's very hypocritical" for Romney to now say he's against federal earmarks like those used to fund the Olympics, Anderson said.

Romney has railed against Obama for cheerleading public investments in the nation's infrastructure when federal debt is at an all-time high. He has pledged to ban congressional earmarks if elected president in November.
"I think [earmarks open] the door to excessive spending, spending on projects that don't need to be done," Romney said during a Republican primary debate in February. The Olympics, however, are an exception, he added.

"In the history of the Olympic movement, the federal government has always provided the transportation and security," he said. "So we came to the federal government asking for help on transportation and security."

All told, the 2002 Olympics were seen as a major success, so Romney will continue touting that accomplishment -- he just won't mention the role that federal funding played.


✄snip>

man oh man, you think you would be posting THIS IF OBAMA had won the Olympics for Chicago..?
somehow I doubt you'd see this on the dailykos if HE HAD

 

[Moonglow]

Well you know these die hard GOPer's think it's okay and have even tried to change the subject, well at least the trolls that is.
Very good article, I knew that Mittens was a plastic Phoney Baloney, making his past look good, but the layers of filth are peeling off.

 

[Charles_Main]

Romney didn't save the 2002 Olympics -- American socialism saved the 2002 Olympics.



Mitt Romney has staked his entire presidential campaign on two things: his track record at Bain Capital and his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His Bain record has received a fair bit of coverage, and Romney has been reduced to accusing his critics of being Communist tyrants. His record with the Olympics has been largely ignored, however—until now. Although Romney rails on a daily basis against President Obama's auto bailout and against Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich 's earmarking, yesterday's Washington Post reminded us that as head of the Olympic games, Romney bragged about lobbying the federal government to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the winter games. And this morning the Democratic National Committee released the video at the top of this post highlighting the massive federal spending—effectively a bailout—that went into saving the 2002 games.

It's a very funny video, particularly the segment in which John McCain lambasts the Salt Lake City "boondoggle," but it has a serious point: when Mitt Romney claims credit for saving the winter Olympics, the part he leaves out is that taxpayers footed the bill. The real credit should go to the American public. His main accomplishment was that he was an effective lobbyist for the games. And when he attacks the federal government now for what he calls "crony capitalism," what he's really attacking is the very same thing that he depended on just ten years ago.

The Olympic Bailout - YouTube​

OMG with people as Fucking Retarded as you around, I fear for the Very Survival of America.

 

[skookerasbil]

Romney didn't save the 2002 Olympics -- American socialism saved the 2002 Olympics.



Mitt Romney has staked his entire presidential campaign on two things: his track record at Bain Capital and his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His Bain record has received a fair bit of coverage, and Romney has been reduced to accusing his critics of being Communist tyrants. His record with the Olympics has been largely ignored, however—until now. Although Romney rails on a daily basis against President Obama's auto bailout and against Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich 's earmarking, yesterday's Washington Post reminded us that as head of the Olympic games, Romney bragged about lobbying the federal government to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the winter games. And this morning the Democratic National Committee released the video at the top of this post highlighting the massive federal spending—effectively a bailout—that went into saving the 2002 games.

It's a very funny video, particularly the segment in which John McCain lambasts the Salt Lake City "boondoggle," but it has a serious point: when Mitt Romney claims credit for saving the winter Olympics, the part he leaves out is that taxpayers footed the bill. The real credit should go to the American public. His main accomplishment was that he was an effective lobbyist for the games. And when he attacks the federal government now for what he calls "crony capitalism," what he's really attacking is the very same thing that he depended on just ten years ago.

The Olympic Bailout - YouTube​

w0w s0n..................w0w.............this thread should really tilt the election in favor of Obama!!! I mean.........who cant see that??




What a political jarhead.............s0n.........you might as well start a thread about group navel contemplation...................

 

[Politico]

Is that a conservative navel? Looks like it's leaning left to me.