Yes, these are Romney supporters. I’d be proud.

Ohio Romney Rally – Interviews with Supporters – YouTube.

It is no secret that political candidates are capable of doing awful things when they are reach the desperate final days of an election campaign.

But trying to scare American workers into believing that a government initiative that saved their industry was some sort of secret scheme to shutter major plants and offshore jobs is more than just creepy. It’s economic fear-mongering of a sort that is destructive to the spirit of communities and to the very future of the republic as an industrial force.

George Romney, who led the remarkable American Motors Company project that would eventually produce the Jeep, never in a political career that saw him win election as governor of Michigan and seek the Republican nomination for president would have engaged in such calumny.

But George Romney’s ne’re-do-well son, a very different sort of businessman who devoted his career to taking apart American companies and offshoring jobs, is trying to resurrect his presidential candidacy with a big lie.

And the lie is about Jeeps.

Jeeps are made in Toledo, Ohio, where the iconic American vehicle has been produced since 1941, and Romney needs to win Toledo and the rest of northwest Ohio if he is to stand a chance of winning the battleground state that is key to the presidency.

Last week, Romney went to the region and shocked voters by suggesting that: “I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China.”

The story, an October 22 report by Bloomberg News, which specifically stated that: “Chrysler currently builds all Jeep SUV models at plants in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. [Fiat/Chrysler executive Mike] Manley referred to adding Jeep production sites rather than shifting output from North America to China.”

Yet, Romney spoke of the company that manufactures Jeeps “moving all production to China.

The statement stirred fundamental fears in a regional that has been battered by plant closings. So much so that Jeep’s parent company, Chrysler, rushed to clarify that Romney was completely, totally, incredibly wrong. “Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China,” announced Chrysler.

Company spokesman Gaulberto Ranieri said that Romney had remade the facts so aggressively that: “It is a leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.”

What was Romney’s response to being caught in a lie.

via Yes, Romney's a Liar, but This Is Getting Ridiculous | The Nation.

CANTON — Mitt Romney testified under oath in 1991 that the former wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg got a fair deal in the couple’s 1988 divorce, even though the company shares Maureen Sullivan Stemberg received were valued at a fraction of Staples’ stock price on the day of its initial public offering only a year later.

At the time the Stembergs split, Romney suggested, there was little indication Staples’ value would soon skyrocket.

Romney’s testimony in a post-divorce lawsuit brought in 1990 by Sullivan Stemberg was unsealed on Thursday in Norfolk Probate and Family Court at the Globe’s request. Sullivan Stemberg sued unsuccessfully to amend the couple’s financial agreement after Staples went public in 1989 and closed its first day of trading at $22.50 per share.

Stemberg left his wife in February 1987, and the divorce was finalized in July 1988. Before the official split, the couple negotiated an agreement in which Sullivan Stemberg got 500,000 shares of Staples stock, which Stemberg valued at $2.25 per share.

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Sullivan Stemberg also kept the couple’s Dedham home, worth $690,000 at the time, and in February 1988 sold 175,000 shares of Staples stock at $2.25 per share — before it went public — to pay off the mortgage. She sold another 80,000 shares two months later, at $2.48 per share.

“In my opinion, that’s a good price to sell the securities at,” Romney, now the Republican nominee for president, testified in June 1991. After that, the number of Sullivan Stember’s shares shrank to 81,667 due to a three-for-one reverse stock split just before Staples had its initial public offering.

On April 28, 1989, the company made its initial public offering at $19 per share and ended its first day at $22.50. This came barely a year after Sullivan Stemberg’s sale of more than half of her shares at less than $2.50 a share (pre-split).

The closing price made Staples, which had 23 stores at the time, worth more than $200 million. Stemberg, holding 567,000 shares, claimed $12.8 million in company stock.

via Mitt Romney vouched for low price on Staples stock that traded 10 times higher a year later – Politics – The Boston Globe.

CANTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts judge will hold another hearing before deciding whether to unseal testimony that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave in the divorce case of Staples founder Tom Stemberg.

Ex-wife Maureen Sullivan Stemberg appeared in court Wednesday with lawyer Gloria Allred. They said they did not object to a Boston Globe motion to lift an impoundment order on Romney’s 1991 testimony in the case.

Attorneys said Romney’s testimony dealt with financial matters.

Romney lawyer Robert Jones said he does not anticipate objecting but would like time to review the entire transcript. He asked a judge not to delay the hearing beyond one day.

“This is a decades-old divorce case in which Mitt Romney provided testimony as to the value of a company,” Jones said. “He has no objection to letting the public see that testimony.”

Staples was founded with backing from Romney’s firm, Bain Capital. Tom Stemberg has been a surrogate for Romney and spoke on the former Massachusetts governor’s behalf at the GOP convention.

via Gloria Allred, Maureen Stemberg Sullivan In Court: Judge Holds Hearing Over Mitt Romney Testimony In Divorce Case.