A certain left-leaning blogger in Minnesota likes to excuse his rhetorical lapses by appeals to the device of hyperbole. Perhaps conservative John Hinderaker will evoke the same literary license for a passage in An Evening With Mitt Romney:
Rounding the corner to pull into the Lafayette Club’s parking lot, security was tight. Across the road, a pathetic, ragtag group of left-wing protesters were chanting, as usual, “We are the 99 percent.” There were conservative counter-protesters too; I couldn’t tell which group was more numerous. The largest sign said “Romney Creates Jobs.” I wanted to park my car, get out and confront the leftists, but unfortunately the security arrangements didn’t permit that. Otherwise, I would have approached some of them and taped interviews. The question I always want to ask is, “If you are the 99 percent, why are there only 11 of you?”
Oh, snap!
Hinderaker didn't get as close to the protest as the Minnetonka Patch photographer Lisa Bauman, who snapped the photo above for the article she wrote with Michael Schoemer, Mitt Romney Protesters Rally at Lake Minnetonka's Lafayette Club.
Close observer that he is, Hindraker doesn't report all of what's written on the white and red sign: "Romney Creates Jobs In China." (cropped and scaled here)
It was late in the day, so perhaps his arithmetric skills were impaired as well. Schoemer and Bauman report:
As presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney prepared to descend on the Lake Minnetonka area Thursday evening, an estimated 50 to 75 protesters began to assemble at one of the prime spots for his visit, Lake Minnetonka's prestigious Lafayette Club.
With Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan still a questionable arrival, demonstrators made sure his presence was known with cardboard masks.
St. Louis Park resident Ilo Madden attended the protest rally because she's "worried about democracy." She said she's saved $300 so far under the new health care plan.
"I love 'Obamacare.' I don't like Bush tax cuts," she said. Her personal slogan, she said, is "keep your 'mitts' off my healthcare."
And the counter-protesters?
While protestors and others waited for the motorcade, a few people on bicycles stopped because they said they couldn't believe the size of the crowd.
They crossed the street and began yelling at the protestors.
When protestors yelled, "minimum wage is poverty, we demand our dignity," Robin Mackell of Mound countered with "minimum wage is too high!"
Oh, snap!
And Mitt Romney is working hard to secure the vote of folks in the West Metro with that worldview. The Washington Post reports in Romney highlights role of offshore tax havens in helping ensure big business is ‘doing fine’:
Creating a potential headache for his campaign, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said big businesses in the U.S. were “doing fine” in part because they get advantages from offshore tax havens.His comments echoed similar assertions about the state of big business by President Barack Obama which Romney has criticized. They’re also a reminder that the GOP candidate has kept some of his personal fortune in low tax foreign accounts.
“Big business is doing fine in many places,” Romney said during a campaign fundraiser Thursday. “They get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses.”
Perhaps the Romney campaign asked Mike Parry for advice on creating a communications thunderstorm.
Update: KTSP 5's Tom Hauser reports that over 100 protests were outside the fundraiser. Those who might want to attribute "liberal media bias" to Hauser's larger number should be advised that station owner and Hubbard Communications media mogul Stan Hubbard was one of the sponsors for the fundraiser. Clip below:
Photo: Lisa Bauman, Minnetonka Patch.
Update: I missed this nearly unreadable post by Two Putt Tommy about the Powerline item. Had Bluestem know about the post--which was published first--before reading Powerline's article in PIM's morning report, I would't have written about it. Bluestem isn't remotely interested in being anyone's echo chamber, whether Johnson figured this one out on his own or had it pitched to him by one of the organizations sponsoring the protest.
Bluestem apologizes to our audience for this oversight.
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