Mitt Romney

Michelle Shocked Does Not Hate Gay People, So Why Did She Say God Does? [Update: There Was Bad Information on the Internet! Surprise!]

Update, 3/22: You can listen to audio from Michelle Shocked's rant below. So we have a great deal of information now -- her initial lunatic outburst, her highly measured response and the reaction of the masses. Judge for yourself. Update, 3/20: The Texas Observer has an open letter from Michelle S ... More >>

Mark Cuban Loves Watching Fox News, But Thinks It Could Learn a Thing or Two From Dancing With the Stars

Yesterday, Mark Cuban joined the rest of the universe in parsing the presidential election, putting on his media-critic hat and taking to his blog to assess the state of political coverage on cable. Turns out, Cuban loves Fox News. He watched it all the time during the election cycle, though not as ... More >>

European Election Monitors Find U.S. Elections Are Expensive, "Unduly Politicized," Other Shockingly Obvious Conclusions

At the end of October, highly watchable Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott threatened to press charges against any "U.N. poll watchers" who might "interfere with Texas elections." Not to be outdone, state officials in Pennsylvania and Iowa also started threatening to arrest people. Those "poll wa ... More >>

Your Unfair Park Election Day Headquarters

Here at Unfair Park, we thought long and hard about how to cover the election. Should we devote our vast resources to covering the polls, putting our fingers to the pulse of the electorate? Perhaps we could relay impressionistic dispatches as political watchers reacted to the incoming election resul ... More >>

Our BBQ-loving Englishman Is Actually an Educated Student of Politics. Who Knew?

Turns out or resident English guy, Gavin Cleaver, who drenches himself in barbecue sauce and smoke for us over on City of Ate, is actually like a doctor. In politics. University trained and the author of a forthcoming book on political ethics. We did not know that ... both that he was a Ph.D. or tha ... More >>

Obama & Romney's Country-Club Sopranos

American banks are on a massive crime spree. The Presidential candidates hope you won't notice.

Romney's Lies to Auto Workers Show He Doesn't Get the Modern World

So here we are at the door to election day. In the nation it all comes down to Ohio. In Ohio it all comes down to the auto industry. And Mitt Romney is betting his marbles on TV ads that say he's the one who wanted to save the industry and President Obama's the one shipping jobs to China. Man. As ... More >>

Meat Loaf Endorses Mitt Romney by Completely, Absolutely Nailing "America the Beautiful"

Just in: Meat Loaf has officially locked down this campaign for Mitt Romney. Last night, over in Ohio, the Dallas-born Loaf put on performance that is sure pull the tides of undecided voters into Romney's boat. From the LA Times: "This is the most important election in the history of the United St ... More >>

The Presidential Debate-Watching Party at Texas Theatre Was Nuts

These days, it seems like debate watching isn't such a social thing. We sit in living rooms with our family and friends, perhaps, or watch it alone and cast our thoughts out onto Facebook threads and Twitter feeds. So, what would it be like to watch it in a darkened movie theater with a bunch of com ... More >>

Meet Dallas Billionaire Harold Simmons, Radioactive Waste Magnate and Mitt Romney's Second-Biggest Donor

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has raised nearly $300 million, and it's largely been with the help of a coterie of extremely wealthy, and extremely prolific donors. The top donor, of course, is Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. But the second bigge ... More >>

Presidential Debate: Thoughts on Manners, Accents and Ass-Kickings

OK, they're finally getting down to the part of the last presidential debate I care about, accents and manners. So I have questions. The New York Times has a piece on its local page today about how New Yorky and Jewish the last debate was, because most of the people who spoke from the audience had ... More >>

Someone Really Should Explain to Mitt Romney How Markets Affect Coal

If your debate-watching drinking game included a shot for each use of the word "coal," you either peed on your roommate's couch or had your stomach pumped. Or both. The primitive fuel was invoked some 22 times, apparently, mostly by Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor ... More >>

Ask Fan Landers: Is My Band Accidentally Aiding A Right-Wing Extremist?

Are you a musician? Is your band having issues? Our new advice columnist, Fan Landers (a.k.a. Jessica Hopper), is ready to give you Real Talk about any problems your musical outfit might be having -- whether professional, practical, or sartorial. Send your problems here; confidentiality is assured, ... More >>

The 10 Most Corrupt Tax Loopholes

If Mitt Romney won't tell you which need to be closed, we will

If Romney's Going to Ship Auto Jobs to China, Some of Those Jobs Will Be Texas'

Do you have to be from Michigan to get what Mitt Romney's really all about? He repeats that stand-up-to-China line over and over again on the campaign trail to make himself look tough, but meanwhile Bain Capital, his own company, makes hundreds of millions in profits buying up American car-parts co ... More >>

Sic 'em, Mitt. Make All Those Elderly Deadbeats Pay Their Fair Share.

Poor Mitt Romney finally says exactly what he's thinking and the guy gets hammered for it. You wanted specificity and numbers from the man? Well, as you no doubt heard, Mother Jones reported this week that he's plenty specific when talking to gatherings of his big-money contributors: "All right, t ... More >>

Rambo Romney Should Call for Restarting the Draft

Make us believe you mean it, Mitt. Bring back the draft. For the better part of a week, I have been reading all these thinly veiled suggestions by Mitt Romney that President Obama isn't enough of an ass-kicker in the Middle East. His aides have been telling reporters that a President Romney right n ... More >>

Cast Your Vote at 7-Eleven With Special Election Coffee Cups, Track National Results

Today 7-Eleven begins a tryst into pre-election voting by offering customers an opportunity to show support for their preferred presidential candidate by choosing a blue coffee cup for President Barack Obama or red for Mitt Romney. Undecided voters, or those who don't want to endure the wrath of a ... More >>

Dear Benjamin Netanyahu, Could You do a Mitvah for Dallas?

This is a personal letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Dear Prime Minister: My name is Jim Schutze. I am a columnist for the Dallas Observer. I write about local things here. My politics are sort of all over the place, but I have always considered myself a great friend of Israel, ... More >>

Dallas State Rep. Stefani Carter, Now a Romney Surrogate, on Why Romney Should Get the Black Vote

Seems like it was only a month-and-a-half ago that Stefani Carter, the Republican state rep from North Dallas, was just another face in that Mitt Romney campaign piece about how, despite having just been booed during his speech to the NAACP, black people love him. Now, she's a full-fledged surrogate ... More >>

You Can't Handle the Truth

Not if you're willing to listen Paul Ryan and his cronies, that is.

So, What's On Mitt Romney's iPod?

Over the last two nights of the Republican National Convention, both Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney have taken the time to mention the music on Romney's iPod, with Ryan, a noted Rage Against the Machine fan, saying, "There are the songs on his iPod whic ... More >>

Shape-Shifting Mitt: From Blue Blood to Blue Collar. That's a Laugh.

I had a private little laugh and moment of startled disbelief while my wife and I were watching Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night. Romney described his father as having started out in life as an apprentice "lath and plaster carpenter," a term so arcane ... More >>

Fear, Loathing and Tons of Strippers: What Happens When the GOP Comes to Town

Paul Ryan Pick Proves They Don't Make Rich People Like They Used To

What country is this? Have I been on some kind of horrendous toot, and did I sleep for a month, and did I wake up in the wrong country? All weekend long on my TV set I kept seeing Paul Ryan, the right-wing social Darwinist cheese-head, and they said he was a candidate for vice president of the Unite ... More >>

Gary Johnson, the Presidential Candidate Who 'Agrees With You 100 Percent,' Will Be in Dallas This Week

Pop quiz: Which presidential candidate, whose name will appear on the ballot in all 50 states, paid his way through college as a door-to-door handyman? Which one earned the nickname "Governor Veto" by rejecting more than 750 bills passed by his state's legislature? Which one competed in a re-enactme ... More >>

Mitt Romney Wants to Kill Wind-Power Tax Credits, Which Worries Texas' Wind Industry

Mitt Romney did himself no favors in Iowa when a spokesman told the Des Moines Register the candidate would "allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits." In Iowa and much of the Midwest, t ... More >>

It's the Culture, Stupid

Tale of two cities in the morning papers -- well, two and a half, if you include Mitt Romney. The Reverend Gerald Britt has a mesmerizing op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News today about the agony of Dixon Circle, the South Dallas neighborhood where a near-riot took place last week after police sh ... More >>

Mitt Romney Wants You to Know: Black People Love Him, Including Dallas Rep. Stefani Carter

When Mitt Romney spoke at the NAACP convention in Houston two weeks ago, he was roundly booed when he promised to repeal the signature law of the nation's first black president. Some said Romney had cojones for speaking his mind to voters he had little chance of wooing. Some viewed it as a transpare ... More >>

GOP Arguments Against Obamacare Leave Me Empty-Handed

So I'm doing a this-hand versus that-hand thing in my head on Obamacare. Everybody says the Republicans are going to make this year's presidential election a referendum on the Affordable Care Act. I just want to be ready. On the one hand, Affordable Care will encourage tons of poor people and young ... More >>

Like Mitt Romney, I Also Longed to See Sunny Vietnam but Was Denied

Hey, it was great having Mitt Romney in town this week, was it not? He looks so different in Texas. Those national mediatoids were making him out to be a rich plutocrat who made his money killing companies and shipping jobs to Vietnam, but when we got to see him here under our own warm sun, he look ... More >>

Mitt Romney Moves Left With Education Plan. That'll Never Last.

Oh, man, and me a total Obamatoid! Am I going to have to vote for Mitt Romney? But he's already way to the left of Obama on education and batting 1.000 on one of my favorite themes, the need to integrate schools by class, not race. For years there has been persuasive research out there arguing that ... More >>

Ted Nugent For Vice President? We Made Him Some Promotional Materials...

Seeing how Waco's resident quote generator/firearms enthusiast Ted Nugent made some rather controversial statements about President Obama this week, which he's already "smoothed" over with Secret Service, and how current Republican candidate for President Mitt Romney is looking for a VP candidate, i ... More >>

Mitt Romney: American Parasite

Mitt Romney’s years at Bain Capital represent everything you hate about capitalism.

Robert Jeffress: Romney's Not A Christian, But Go Ahead And Vote For Him Anyway

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Seems like only six months ago (because it was) that First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress was still casually referring to Mormonism as a "cult." Back then, that word choice earned him a round of appearances on various TV news shows to explain himse ... More >>

How To Not Get Deported

So, you're an undocumented immigrant. Your great hope is to stick around, make a living and, some day, become naturalized. Unfortunately, our immigration laws are a tangled morass of inscrutability, insensible to the realities of a globalized world. You may have watched last week's Republican deba ... More >>

Mexicans, Mormons and Mitt: More Alike Than You Think

Perry Thinks Loving Tea Party Means You Can Go Home Again. Oh, He'll Go Home, All Right.

​If Rick Perry still considers himself a candidate for president, then I get to consider him one too. I think I'm justified in remarking on the 180-degree turnabout Gov. Perry has made in his basic worldview since beginning this quest. You remember the original Perry line when it started, right? I ... More >>

Can Mormons Be Trusted? A Shallow Guide to Managing Your Most Ill-Informed Fears.

Mitt Romney CampaignConcerns have been raised over Mormonism's decision to move to Cleveland. Because, you know, it's Cleveland.​Last month evangelical leaders gathered in D.C. for the Values Voter Summit, where disciples of the Pissed-Off Jesus harrumphed and yammered about how much America sucke ... More >>

How Hateful Was Robert Jeffress's Mormonism-Is-a-Cult Line? Very, If You Know History.

​Alfredo Corchado has a story in today's Dallas Morning News about Mitt Romney's Mexican relatives: "Mitt Romney's relatives in Mexico are supportive but wary." It's a topic that has been in the back of my mind ever since Dallas's own Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of Dallas First Baptist, tri ... More >>

Verbal Sparring Between Romney and Perry Highlight GOP Debate, But Three Bachmann Quotes Prove She Needs to Go Home

If you missed last night's CNN Western Republican debate in Nevada, the clip above is the best example of why the GOP is seriously screwed no matter who they choose. The two supposed front-runners -- Mitt Romney and Rick Perry -- acted like a couple of high schoolers, barking and interrupting each ... More >>

Cult of Personality, or: Good Lord, Robert Jeffress Has Had a Very Busy Last Three Days

First Baptist Dallas's Robert Jeffress first appeared on Unfair Park back in October 2008 -- the first time, or close to, he referred to Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as a member of a "cult." Friday's remarks following his endorsement of Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., may have b ... More >>

Post's Hunting-Camp Story Unfairly Loads Southern Baggage on Perry's Shoulders

​Well, pardon me for making myself important, but I feel like I do bring a certain perspective to the Rick Perry N-word story. For one thing, I just finished a long stretch of reporting on Perry. I have a story coming out his week in the newspaper that's pretty much a deconstruction of his "Te ... More >>

What Kind of Presidential Candidate Will Evangelicals Support? Let's Ask Jeffress.

​Our first real introduction to First Baptist Dallas's Robert Jeffress was in the fall of 2008, when the downtown pastor came under fire for referring to Mormon Mitt Romney a member of a "cult." That came up today on FOX News, where Jeffress is a frequent guest and where he was asked today who eva ... More >>

Romney Eats Arlington BBQ, Says "Country Can Learn a Lot of Lessons From Gov. Rick Perry"

​Mitt Romney, who's polling well amongst would-be GOP presidential contenders, stopped in Arlington today to grab a bite of Rudy's barbecue -- and take a bite out of President Obama, specifically his Middle East policy speech, which Romney said "threw Israel under the bus," a sound bite making the ... More >>

Commonwealth of Good Hair

Polygamy and Me

Seven months have passed since the polygamist raid in Eldorado, but for one mainstream Mormon, the effects linger

Ask a Mexican

Welcome to the United States, Mexicans. Now, how'd you like some new underwear?

Take This Thermometer and Shove It

Those radical Republicans

In the GOP back East, even Lincoln would fit in