July 17, 2007
The spot is titled Ocean.A just-released, 60-second campaign commercial from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (left) talks about America's children and his belief that they are swimming in an ocean of drugs, Internet porn and media violence. From Romney's voice-over:
I'm deeply troubled about the culture that surrounds our kids today... I'd like to see us clean up the water in which our kids are swimming. I'd like to keep pornography from coming up on their computers. I'd like to keep drugs off the street. I'd like to see less violence and sex on TV and in video games and in movies. If we get serious about this we can actually do a great deal to clean up the water in which our kids and grandkids are swimming.
The campaign of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) wasted no time in attacking the Romney TV spot, painting the former Massachusetts governor as a latecomer to the culture wars - and a hypocrite:
In a move rich with irony, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign released a new television advertisement decrying "the culture that surrounds our kids today," despite the fact that Romney served on the board of Marriott International, which generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue through in-room pornography services at its hotels.
In stark contrast with Romney's role at Marriott, which brought him over $100,000 per year, Senator Sam Brownback lead the fight against indecency and asked the hotel chain to stop offering pornography in its rooms.
Senator Brownback has been a leader on decency and media issues... Despite facing intense industry opposition, Brownback has worked to strengthen video game ratings standards and to study the impact of media on childhood development.
Meanwhile, Time's Real Clear Politics blog reports e-mail reaction to the Romney spot running 3-1 against, including this one:
I think the new Romney spot is dreadful. Video game violence? Could he have picked a more small-potatoes topic? ...In an election that will decide the future of our Middle East policy, our tax policy, our immigration policy, and -- assuming a Supreme Court vacancy -- possibly the future of Roe vs. Wade, I find it unfathomable that he wants to talk about sex and violence on television and in video games...
Comments
Re: New Mitt Romney Ad Decries Sex & Violence in Video Games;
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except for drugs on the streets, though my opinion is that all drugs should be legal for people over 18/21...maybe with a big tax on it
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BTW, Ron Paul for President...Cause everyone else just sucks
He'd be terrible too in choosing supreme court justices. The kind of justices he would choose would vote for federalism and that would mean that video games would receive no First Amendment protection. That would mean there'd be a battle in each individual state, and in many we would lose, and that would be fine with Ron Paul.
Paul is also a strict constructionist on the Bill of Rights which means that he reads them literally and may not think video games are even protected from the federal govt, since the 1st Amend only mentions "speech" and "the press". Im not sure about that though. Somebody should ask him about this, Id be curious to see what he says about it.
"No, my head is further up my ass!"
"Please. I bet you can still see light. Whereas I'm in the lower intestines baby!"
Exactly right. The only honest candidate, and the only one who won't crusade to 'protect the children' is Ron Paul. If they feel the need to delve into such matters, then it seems clear that neither Romney nor Brownback know what the job of the president actually is.
Check out Ron Paul on youtube.
id like to see you pull your head out of your ass. "cleaning up the water" isnt your job, you are not in a position of power to wallow around in issues that nobody cares about in times like these. you dont like the content in various media forms? i got a much more cost effective solution for you: dont fucking watch it. unless you and you helpless childen are being tied down to a chair and forced to watch and play violent media, stop acting like your jesus christ and going with the "my way or the highway" attitude..
FYI, Brownback supported the Truth in Video Game Rating act that would've effectively banned World of Warcraft.
-Romney follows the train of "sex" (which there is none of in any mainstream video games) and excessive violence.
On the other:
-Brownback says unlike his candidate, he is trying to (and this part is paraphrased from his meaning) "jump onto the political bandwagon of 'fixing' the ESRB and perform studies that have been done before and waste taxpayers money."
On the other other hand (what? it's an octupus or something):
-Video game violence is such a low-level issue that talking about it pushes other issues away from the light.
-Romney follows the train of "sex" (which there is none of in any mainstream video games) and excessive violence.
On the other:
-Brownback says unlike his candidate, he is trying to (and this part is paraphrased from his meaning) "jump onto the political bandwagon of 'fixing' the ESRB and perform studies that have been done before and waste taxpayers money."
On the other other hand (what? it's an octupus or something):
-Video game violence is such a low-level issue that talking about it pushes other issues away from the light.
No he hasn't. No he hasn't. No he hasn't.
Brownback has done nothing but fail in terms of videogames, just like every other politician.
Ironically, Romney stated he looked into the Bible when asking why anyone would commit such an act, apparently not smart enough to realize that Cho made numerous religious references in his videos and writings, and made no mention of video games at all.
This Romney guy is as big of an idiot as Thompson, as neither one of them has acknowleged that religion could play a role in violence, but instead, they blame games and use religion in a positive light. Not saying religion is to blame for anything bad, but it goes to show you when it comes to things these individuals happen to like, there is no way they would even think of blaming it for any kind of negative behavior.
Protect the children? Yeah right. Politicians protecting their own personal interests.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he's commiting a mistake."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
the rest are two-faced liars who possibly should be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul
I can find nothing in there to support any of your assertions.
As fir the ad, I notice he proposes no actual policy of any sort. We're all concerned about things. Myself, I'm worried about stuffed shirts with no real political views pandering their way into the White House. I have a specific plan for how to deal with this. What does he plan to do about his conerns?
His campaign seems pointless.
We have parental controls for TV and video games now.
We have the right to view or not view what we watch based
on our own free will.
Although this seems a little interestioning
The constitution is the law of the land, at every level. States and local can touch on things not specifically listed in the constitution, but they cannot simply make up their own laws that override the constitution. Does that make sense? Here is a piece written by Paul in regards to the Broadcast Indecency Act of 2004. No specific mention of video games, but a clear representation of his view of media and the first amendment.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul165.html
"I have a personal belief that the responsibility of raising kids, educating kids and training kids is up to the parents and not the state. Once the state gets involved, it becomes too arbitrary." -Ron Paul
It actually makes a pretty solid argument.
yes lets lump porn and violence together,now that films above PG13 have been baned lets move on to questionable lyrics in music ,if it dose not pass the federal board of of tight arsed ninnys it can not be consumed by the public and once they get rid of media, the in fighting on the different interpretations of the bible will be next,can you imagain it them burning all the bibles that have pictures in it?
my point is this is not a path we should take,do we want to say to adults that you can not buy,import or watch anything that dose not pass federal muster?,brittian dose it,aus dose it,gremany dose it but to a lesser degree,new zeland is one of the worse, I mean we wont have MP3 nazis but media nazis checking if your content is legitimate not as in legal but as in if its approved for adult consumption or not?!!?
Thats a strong endorsement of free speech, but I think he's talking about federal laws there. He may also vote that way in his own state (regarding state laws on the same subject), but I think he would feel that its up to each other state to decide their own laws. Thats what you have to be careful about when reading Paul's essays. He's often just referring to the federal government when it seems like he;s talking about the whole country (every state).
There are people that really do believe that the Bill of Rights only applies to the federal govt. Thats what federalism is. Thats what Justice Thomas, and to a lesser degree Scalia believes. And Im pretty sure thats what Ron Paul believes too.
Ace of Sevens,
I dont have a definitive link for you. You have to read through alot of Pauls writings and sort of read between the lines. Theres also discussions about this on libertarian blogs. If you do a search for Paul and federalism or states rights you should find some of them.
sorry I'll be too busy registering democrat in hopes of making sure hilary clinton does not win the democractic nomination, Obama '08. Honestally if it were Ron Paul vs. Obama it'd be a tough call, but we shoudl be fine if either of them wins. Although I think ron paul's chances are only slightly better than that Alaskan senator who's trying to get the democratic nomination.
@pest_control
Err, I'm not sure where you got the idea that Dr. Paul believes the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to the States. His position is that the BoR (and the rest of the Constitution) applies equally to the States since they ratified it and stuff..
Anyhow, here's a video of Dr. Paul talking about video games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjiGNqmDCSI
@Gamer81
Romney never said that the VA tech thing was caused by video games. You say he did, please state your source.
Everyone else:
Romney stated that he wanted to reduce access of pornography and violence to MINORS not the general public, and he did not single out video games as the source of all evil, merely a part of all media. This is what people here have been wishing a politician would do since I began reading this site.
Brownback's always been slime, so no developments there.
How do you "reduce access of pornography and violence to MINORS"? That's the question. The only guaranteed way is to restrict it from adults. If you don't, these minors you speak of will find a way around it, if they want to.
Also, stop lumping all people under 18 together. Some of these "minors" are 16 or 17. You don't really think they will magically have an interest in porn/violence at 18 that wasn't there before, do you? Are you and Romney THAT naive?
"Romney never said that the VA tech thing was caused by video games. You say he did, please state your source."
Oh no? You should visit this site more often then. Here's what the idiot Romney said:
"Pornography and violence poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this cesspool."
source: http://gamepolitics.com/2007/05/06/prez-candidate-romney-video-games-in-...
Umm, no, we've been asking that games be treated like other media, not that other media should also be treated like games are now. There's a rather large difference there...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjiGNqmDCSI
ron paul is sane,mitt needs to leave the bible at home...ok I see LOL
Exactly. I'm against all restrictions of Free Speech materials.
Must...resist...dirty...joke...
Gameboy Says:
"This seems like two people arguing over who is a bigger idiot to me.
“No, my head is further up my ass!”
“Please. I bet you can still see light. Whereas I’m in the lower intestines baby!”"
HA, Gameboy summed it up perfectly. Watching them fight over who's pet issue sexual/violent media belonged to first is so funny.
Josherisms Says:
"...the only one who won’t crusade to ‘protect the children’ is Ron Paul...."
I too was impressed by his "leave the internet alone" stand, but like Sidewinder says, he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell (sad as that is). It's way too early in the game for schoolyard fight "campaigning."