Romney releases nonsensical anti-union video blaming Obama for ... something

[ProSense]

Romney releases nonsensical anti-union video blaming Obama for ... something

by Laura Clawson

Mitt Romney is out with another anti-union web video. Once again, he features a white male business owner (this one less in the cuddly grandpa mold than the previous one) talking plaintively about how awful it is that he as a non-union business owner has to exist in a world in which unions also exist. In this case, the specific complaint is that the Laborers' Union (LiUNA) has picketed his worksites and ... something about President Obama.
I don't actually comprehend where Obama comes into this. He's featured in the video, to be sure, in footage that's been rendered sorta grainy and threatening, saying " it's time we had a president who didn't choke saying the word union, a president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best—organize our workers." As you might gather from the "it's time we had a president" bit, this quote is from 2007, and apparently the Romney campaign thinks it's the strongest piece of evidence they have that Obama is scary and uniony.

And it is really not clear how this connects to the story of Paul Munsch, owner of St. Louis Paving, even as he himself tells it. Horrors visited upon him by the Laborers include an inflatable rat and some billboards noting that St. Louis Paving is non-union—a fact its owner thinks is a good thing. He says:

Almost everything they do makes the skin crawl in anybody who hears this story and yet everything they do is legal. And I've tried to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt, on a lot of issues...it's been one union payoff after another.

more

What's Mutiple Choice Mitt smoking?

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[Inuca]

2. Inflatable rat?!?!? n/t

[ProSense]

4. Wonder

if Mitt realizes that this video is plain weird?

[starroute]

10. Probably a lot like this one

The Wikipedia description is "A giant inflatable rat displayed at the site of a union dispute, on Tenth Avenue near 23rd Street, Manhattan, NYC."

[bigdarryl]

3. Mr.Corporations are people is such a DICK!!!!!

[Ikonoklast]

5. Mitt would never be allowed to join a Union.

He would find out that he'd have to work for a living; if he thinks being a Union member equates with being lazy and overpaid, I have a hedge fund to sell you.

[tblue]

6. The thing about Romney is he doesn't believe half the stuff he says.

So he's a dishonest pandering creep. Unlike Michelle Bachmann, who is an honest but deluded pandering creep. And Perry, who is just plain a creep.

[JoePhilly]

7. I understand this one ... and it is powerful.

I have not seen the video, but I think I understand the message.

When I was young, my grandfather had a small construction company. And after a while, it passed to my father.

Most of the jobs were very small. My father needed a couple carpenters, a plumber, and electrician, maybe a few others. My father KNEW specific people, all independent, who did these jobs. Dealing with the Union created overhead costs.

First, the time spent dealing with the Union rep, who wanted something in return, and who thought my father need 5 more people than he needed.

Second, and this was the larger cost. The Union wanted to tell my father who would work the site. And so (1) my father could not hire people who he knew were great at what they did, but (2) the Union sent him their WORST employees because his jobs were SMALL.

I remember once when my father was able to get a contract to do renovations for what today would be "Hallmark Stores" in strip malls. To do each renovation, you need very few workers of the kinds I described. My father wanted to teach me the business, have me do some of all the jobs so that I understood them as well as he did.

He'd hire my teenage friends, and pay them well, to help with unskilled labor ... carry things, clean up, go get lunch for the crew.

The Unions attacked him on each and every point of this. Even having his "non-Union" son on site.

After this particular experience, my father stopped ALL commercial construction work and went into residential remodeling, working direct with the home owners.

For many small businesses that struggle, this is what they fear.

I know a Union guy who tried to start his own plumbing business, and quit for the same reason ... he said ... better to be IN the Union, then to try and work WITH the Union (the same one he was in).

I have no answer to this.

[Wednesdays]

9. Those things you list are Obama's fault...how?

:shrug:

[politicasista]

8. And yet, some (not all) of

Obama's supporters compare him to Senator Kerry as a you know starts with F. Weird. Did not know that RE memes against Dem's seem to be ok now. Go figure.