Politiquotes of the Week: May 23
Booker’s “super hero” image tarnishes after a super gaffe.
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If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press and politicians saying something they’ll regret later is starting to become a trend. First, Vice President Joe Biden forces President Obama out of the closet on same-sex marriage support, then a few weeks later campaign surrogate Newark Mayor Cory Booker blasts Team Obama’s plan to use Republican rival Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital against him. The gaffe may soon blow over, but if Booker is as smart as the political chattering class thought he was before Sunday’s misstep, this is a week he’ll never forget. Until then, it’s the only thing everybody’s talking about. – Joyce Jones (Photos: Courtesy MSNBC; GOP.com)
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Cory Booker - “If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record they’ve done a lot to support business, to grow businesses. And this, to me, I’m very uncomfortable with,” said Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker of the Obama campaign’s ad campaign targeting Mitt Romney’s record at the private equity firm. “This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop because what it does is it undermines, to me, what this country should be focused on.” (Photo: Courtesy MSNBC)
Photo By MSNBC
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David Axelrod - "In this particular instance, he was just wrong," Obama campaign Senior Adviser David Axelrod said on MSNBC. "I love Cory Booker. He's a great mayor. If my house was on fire, I'd hope he was my next-door neighbor.” Photo: Courtesy MSNBC)
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Republican National Committee - “I Stand With Cory” is the slogan for a new Republican National Committee petition drive targeting the Obama campaign’s anti-Bain ads. (Photo: Courtesy GOP.com)
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Cory Booker - “Here they are plucking sound bites out of the [Meet the Press] interview to manipulate them in a cynical manner, to use them for their own purposes,” Booker said in an interview on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show responding to the Republican National Committee’s petition drive. "That slogan had me and my entire staff really fit to be tied.” (Photo: Courtesy MSNBC)
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James Clyburn - “This is not an attack on free enterprise,” said Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co. of criticisms about Romney’s time at Bain Capital. “I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise. But there’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a serious problem with that.” (Photo: Courtesy MSNBC)
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Obama for America - "We strongly disagree with Congressman Clyburn’s choice of words — they have no place in this conversation," said Lis Smith, an Obama for America spokeswoman. (Photo: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
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Barack Obama - “This is what this campaign is going to be about,” said Obama, referring to his campaign’s criticisms of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. "If your main argument for how to grow the economy is that I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you're missing what this job is about. That doesn't mean you were not good at private equity. But that's not what my job is as president."(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
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Reince Priebus - “No matter what David Axelrod may say, President Obama’s private business experiences hasn’t seen the inside of a lemonade stand. And so, I think it’s time to put someone in the White House who understands how job creation works in this country. And that’s Gov. Romney,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on CNN’s State of the Union.(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
