According to The Hill, in a CBS This Morning interview, New Hampshire Republican primary winner Mitt Romney, said that his work to increase profits for his investment firm, Bain Capital, “was no different from the Obama administration’s auto industry bailouts.” Mr. Romney said:

In the general election I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler – closed factories, closed dealerships laid off thousands and thousands of workers – he did it to try to save the business.

Mr. Romney’s comments came in response to criticism by fellow Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, that, during his tenure at Bain, he engaged in “looting” start-up companies and “vulture capitalism.”

During his daily show on Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh urged his listeners who were driving to “pull over” as he played the audio of Mitt Romney’s response. Gov. Romney’s reply to the criticisms are just as unbelievable as the criticisms themselves. Aren’t true conservatives against the government auto industry bailouts and TARP, for that matter? Why draw that comparison, and no sharp contrast, instead, to the president’s socialistic policies? Oh…I forgot…Mitt Romney doesn’t believe the president is a socialist.

Is Mitt Romney’s point, “You did it, too, Mr. President, so you can’t criticize me?” Worse, does Mr. Romney believe that the president did, in fact, “save” the auto industry?

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In today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech talk about Rahm Emanuel’s departure from the White House, the latest consumer spending numbers, and the upcoming college football weekend. We’ll also chat with Claire Berlinski about Margaret Thatcher and American economic policy.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment.com and Stephen Clouse and Associates. We’d also like to let you know that we’ve set up a standalone site at CoffeeandMarkets.com for easier browsing of our past broadcasts.

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Daily Caller: Rahm’s Departure, Plouffe’s Arrival
TNL: Tom Friedman Doesn’t Understand the Tea Parties
There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters
Read Claire Berlinski at Ricochet
Coffee and Markets Podcast Archive

United Auto Workers (UAW) union rank and file members shout down their own UAW leadership in a heated meeting on January 24th, as their UAW leader loses it at the podium.  Sunday’s meeting in California made last summer’s Town Halls look like a family picnic, after a few choice words from their UAW leader spurred the crowd of rank and file members to erupt in screaming and chaos.  At one point,  another attendee tries to reason with the crowd, pleading “we have women and children in here that are scared.”

WARNING: Strong language, angry-town-hall-mob-like-behavior

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In hockey, rough sport that it is, it is rare that one player scores three goals in one game.  They call that a Hat Trick.  In the game of politics, Obama now has managed the Liberal Hat Trick in the minds of the American Public.  In November, he may just find out how rough politics can be.

Of course, many people have known for a long time just how liberal Obama is and was.  There were many warning signs in the last election cycle.  The public however, in this slightly Right of Center nation, either was so tired of ineffective Republicans or, with the help of the Media, refused to acknowledge the warning signs.  In doing so they elected Obama with 52.9% of the vote – a victory but not an overwhelming victory.

Large margin or not, since being inaugurated, Obama has run quickly to the Left. In doing so, he fulfilled Reagan’s warning that Democrat Presidential candidates run as moderates but are determined to govern more to the Left, i.e. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  The Obama Administration’s response to the terrorist bomb attempt in Detroit completed that process in the minds of the American public.

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Many of us had no idea the Republican Party had it in them, but to devise and implement such a plan was ingenious. Think about it; party leadership acting totally inept while a charismatic young Democrat presidential candidate captures the imagination of the normally lethargic youth vote, captures the senior vote, women, and even sends a thrill up the leg of the media.

And within a few short months after attaining the presidency, he conducts himself in a manner (personally and in office) that had not only invigorated his political opponents, but has them so energized they take to the streets and even march on The Capitol (more than once). One would have to conclude Barack Hussein Obama is either the most politically clueless president ever, or… is really a stealth Republican destroying the Democrat Party from within.

Is Barack Obama a Republican plant?

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