Romney Campaign Blames Obama For Closed BBQ Restaurant With Repeated Health Violations

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Think Progress

A new ad by the Romney campaign, titled “Bill’s BBQ,” highlights a small chain of barbecue restaurants in Richmond, Virginia, which closed in September. The ad argues that the 82-year-old company went out of business because President Obama has not improved the economy. But a ThinkProgress review of news reports and public health records suggest the company may have had other problems — and that other similar restaurants in the same area are doing quite well.

The ad features images of the restaurant through the years and narration by Rhoda Elliot, the now-defunct company’s owner and a Republican activist with the Republican-allied National Federation of Independent Businesses. He says:

When President Obama took office there was a lot of hope that things were going to change. Well, he didn’t change anything. There are more people on unemployment today and that’s because the small businesses are failing because we can’t make it. Things have not changed, the pattern is no different now except for worse than it was four years ago. We can’t stand four more years like it is today.

(...)

Additionally, it appears that Bill’s struggled to adhere to public health codes. Public health inspectors cited Bill’s locations repeatedly for critical and non-critical violations. In 2006, one location was cited for “sewage is not being properly disposed of in an approved sewage disposal system.” In 2009, another location was dinged for employees “handling ready-to-eat (RTE) food with their bare hands.”



Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/01/1122211/romney-campaign-blames-obama-for-closed-bbq-restaurant-with-repeated-health-violations/

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Bill’s BBQ...a shining example of what awaits in Romney/Ryan's deregulated Ayn Rand-ian paradise.

[jtuck004]

1. The last straw was the BBQ opossum on the menu. Just too hard to clean roadkill. n/t

[lexx21]

14. Yeah, but the flavor... sun dried and road tenderized... pea pick'n GOOD!

And if you put it on a Ritz cracker.... it's to die for.


So is Mittens going to blame Obama for bunions and lumbago next? I mean seriously, why stop at the closure of a BBQ joint? He should go all the way with blaming him for morning breath as well.

[formercia]

15. Nothin' like a good Road Pizza

The more times it gets run over, the thinner the crust.

[lexx21]

17. OMG that is funny! n/t

[Cracklin Charlie]

18. That's the thing about possum...

It's just as good the second day.

[jtuck004]

26. "I'm not driving in circles. I'm making dinner" n/t

[Spirochete]

2. It's not Obama's fault

Ryan should have gotten his ass in gear, gone in there, and cleaned up some of those dishes...

[Angry Dragon]

3. If Willard does happen to win how can we know if he is telling the truth

and how will other countries know if he is telling the truth??

The man lies as if his life depended on it.

[hollysmom]

4. if his mouth is moving

he is lying.

[dchill]

6. And if his eyes are open...

Last edited Fri Nov 2, 2012, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)

He's thinking about how to spin it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. They will leave no stone unturned.

[Berlum]

7. What a maroon

[mimi85]

8. I smell a sense of desperation

with this ad. Seriously, who has not made up their mind by this time? It's truly become surreal. Actually surreal since the GOP primary debates. That whole farce was totally bizarre. Some professor is going to use some of that footage in a future civics/American history glance to demonstrate how slowly humans are evolving.

[AngryOldDem]

9. They just can't stop lying!

Just like with the Jeep thing that has been soundly debunked by Chrysler itself (as well as GM). Yet, Romney keeps on spreading the same false bullshit.

What does this say about how he sees the electorate? He sees them as a bunch of gullible fools who will believe anything he tells them, no questions asked, and despite facts to the contrary. That entitled, cynical view in and of itself should piss everyone off, and ensure a landslide victory for Obama.

I know it pisses ME off.

[bubba4249]

10. Obama's Fault

My golf cart batteries just died. I should be able to blame Obama for that also.

[LeftInTX]

28. My spray tan turned out wierd

It's Obama's fault

[klook]

11. Obama has shipped all the barbecue jobs to China

and crippled the industry with health code inspections and minimum wage laws. Now he wants BBQ shacks to offer their employees health insurance!

[formercia]

16. Yeah, those pesky Health Codes.......

Food Poisoning should be an acceptable risk. Just think how much Money people will save on Laxatives and Ipecac.

[durablend]

21. "GOD-GIVEN-RIGHT to eat with the rats and roaches, DAMMIT!" n/t

[tclambert]

12. Does anyone believe Romney would do better?

All these lying attacks on Obama imply the argument that if only Mitt Romney were President, he would have saved Bill's BBQ, or kept those Jeep manufacturing jobs in Ohio. But who would believe that?

Here's Romney's campaign plan: Tell lies to make foolish people angry with Obama. Hope that they are too stupid to check the facts and hope they are too stupid to ask themselves if they think Romney would do better. Yet hope they are smart enough to try to vote on the right day. It's kind of a Hail Mary play, just like running ads in states Romney really doesn't have more than a prayer of winning, like Michigan.

It shows that the Romney campaign has conceded they can't win in any reasonable way. All they have left are increasingly implausible scenarios. So they must have concluded if reasonable won't work, let's go ahead with the unreasonable. Sure, it could backfire spectacularly. But they were losing anyway.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Damned regulations strangling small business . . . .

[bullwinkle428]

19. NEWSFLASH, Freepers : public health code violations tend to be not so good for business!

I've seen it happen more than once in my own city of residence, including places where I used to be a regular customer. Once all of that stuff became more public (thank you, INtertubes), it became easier to avoid those dumps.

[nolabear]

22. Oh come on...PRIVATE health codes are fine.

[Sheepshank]

20. The Comments following the article are interesting.....

many of them sound like DU'ers.

I'm finding it very interesting that the information that I thought was unique to, or perhpas clustered here at DU'er and these forums, is really and truly 'out there' ....and people are paying attention. This my heart some good to see that!

[yellowcanine]

23. They should have hired Joe the Plumber's Helper to fix the sewage system.

[OldHippieChick]

24. They're running out of ways to spend all that money on their

own advertising agencies, television/radion stations, consultants.

[progressivebydesign]

25. Those damn DemoRATS!!! screwing up the economy.

My god.. the Romney campaign hasn't said ONE true thing!!

[Brigid]

27. If anyone is to blame . . .

It's the dumbass management of that restaurant chain for not making sure they were obeying the health code. And Romney is trying to blame Obama somehow? Is it November 7 yet?