What’s In The Name, Bane?

Oh brother:

This summer’s much-anticipated Hollywood blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, “Venom” gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney’s former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.

“Bane” is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president’s assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.

“It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood,” said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. “Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society,” he added.

GOP advisor Frank Luntz seems to think the name was chosen to tweak Romney: “Hollywood does it again,” he told Secrets. “[Romney] had to know all this was coming and he should have done a lot more to prepare for it.”

Okay,  wait just a minute, there, bub. I’m not a comic book nerd, and (I’m going to make some enemies admitting this) I’m not even a big fan of the Dark Knight movies,  so I had to look this up: The character Bane, goes all the way back to 1993, long before anyone cared about Mitt Romney’s political aspirations:

Bane is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character’s origin was in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1(January 1993)

I don’t think Hollywood can be blamed for using an established character’s name, even if it does sound like Romney’s former investment firm, Bain.

And it’s kinda funny that the Democrats are going to try to pretend Romney’s the villain in the Dark Knight, because if there is a  parallel  to be made regarding this movie and politics  — it’s pretty much  the opposite of what the Dems are saying it is. Moreover, if this movie turns out to be the blockbuster it’s predicted to be, everyone is going to know how ridonkulus the Dems are for trying this.

It turns out, Bane is the leader of Gotham’s version of an Occupy mob.

Who occupies this city? The 99 percent are a colony of men who’ve been discarded by society living and working in the sewers and subway tunnels, a literal underground of outcasts. They are janitors and delivery guys who are ignored and pass invisibly through halls of power. They are a cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway: One Day, Rio), who steals from the rich because it’s a good way for a clever girl to make a living. They are the idealistic young cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt: 50/50, Inception), whose romanticism will be shattered as he confronts the realities of his hero, police Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2). Gordon is on the other side, among the powerful who cheat and deceive: he has been abetting the elevation to City Savior of district attorney Harvey Dent and the demonization of the Batman, who took the fall for the crimes and sins of Dent at the end of The Dark Knight. (That’s no spoiler, even for those who haven’t seen the previous film: Gordon’s inner turmoil but ultimate decision to continue with the lie is one of the film’s opening gambits.) And of course there’s billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale: Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation). He has now turned recluse and is presumed to have gone all Howard Hughes, but over the course of this story — beautifully, bleakly written by Nolan and his returning Batman writers Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer — we will learn that even hidden away in his stately manor, he wields power, and that we cannot, should not trust to his good motives, for he likes to play god, or at least master of the universe.

What happens in such an unfair world? Enters a villain, the masked Bane (Tom Hardy: This Means War, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), who takes advantage of those who are hurting, those who have been taken advantage of. It takes only a little mass urban blackmail before Gotham is on Bane’s side, and despotism descends with the hurricane force of inevitability. The peasants of Gotham become a citywide mob, following a madman because it sounds like he understands them. It’s authentic French Revolution time. Nolan has said Rises was inspired by A Tale of Two Cities… except here, the two cities are merely the two sides of Gotham.

If Mitt is represented by anyone – he’s  one percenter, Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who enters the fray when things get desperate, to save the city from the despotic, Jacobin, class warfare loving, Moonbat Messiah, Bane (which happens to rhyme with Hussein), who’s leading Gotham to French Revolution style pain.

Ace is blunter than I am:

One problem: Bane may sound like “Bain,” but when Bane talks, he talks like Obama. The whole plot of the movie is Bane’s attempt at “hope and change,” by which we mean violent revolution against the capitalist class.

Actually, I’m pretty sure Democrats  know this, and are trying to steer people away the obvious comparison (that doesn’t help Obama) toward their weak and strained one (that helps Obama.) It’s called “misdirection”, and they do it all the time.

They always fool some of the people some of the time, which I guess makes it worth their time.

UPDATE:

Via Gateway Pundit:

The Batman villain creator called the Democrat attacks on Romney, “Ridiculous!”
The Washington Times reported:

Comic book Writer Chuck Dixon created the character of Bane in the early 90′s and his reaction to the news above, according to his message board on his website Dixonverse.net, was “I saw it on FB like two hours ago. Ridiculous. Tho’ I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach that Rush may pick up on this. And that would be the second time he pegged me and Graham as liberals on his show.”

He later added, “Overgrasping Dems? Hey, if it gets Obama supporters into theaters. Maybe they’ll buy thousands of Bane toys to throw at Romney. It all adds to MY Bane capital. I wonder if the Romney campaign will contact me?”

Hey, Thanks For Reminding Voters About Putin, Rahm (Video)

Team Obama and his acolytes in the media are trying to paint Romney as a “whiner” now because he objects to Chicago-style vicious, and patently dishonest. smears. Apparently, he’s supposed to take being called a  felon like a big boy, and not complain. This is gutter, schoolyard politics, but it’s about all a campaign that can’t run on Obama’s abysmal record has to go on.

‘What Are You Going to Whine at Putin, Stop Whining’, was the message Rahm Emanuel “transmitted” to Romney, on ABC’s This Week, yesterday:

Of course, that attack unintentionally jogged this voter’s memory of an unfortunate exchange between The Whiner in Chief, and President Medvedev, last March:

President Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.”

President Medvedev: “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…”

President Obama: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”

President Medvedev: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

Karl Rove wrote at the time:

He’s willing to bend to the demands of America’s international rivals as long as his appeasement becomes public only after he’s safely back in the White House for a second term. But he is apparently unwilling to share with the American people his “flexibility” with the Russians, perhaps concerned about the criticism such concessions to Moscow might draw from America’s European allies.

The effects of Mr. Obama’s remarks in Seoul go beyond foreign affairs. If the president believes it is important to his reelection to conceal from Americans his response to Russians demands to halt development of a missile defense for Europe, voters have every right to ask: What other surprises does he plan to spring on us if he’s reelected?

Yeah, good question.

You know what? I’ll take a Mitt’s “whining” over the President’s  commie treachery, any day of the week.

(Video) Mitt Hits Obama Campaign For “Falsehoods and Dishonesty” – Goes on the Attack About Obama’s Political Payoffs

Romney spent ten minutes  on Fox and Friends this morning, to to talk about the Obama campaign’s dishonest attacks on his record at Bain, and and to steer the public debate toward Obama’s political cronyism.

“A campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty does not have long legs,” Romney said of the Obama campaign’s relentless Chicago style attacks.

He went on to say that, unlike the President,  he has a plan to get America working, again.

“I have a plan — I call it my jobs recovery plan, to get America working gain. The president only has one thing going, and that is constant attacks on me. They’re dishonest. They’re misdirected. And I think the American people recognize that that kind of politics as something of the past. It may work in Chicago, but it’s not going to work across America.”

(In fairness, yesterday, Axelrod did make an important distinction on CNN’s Face the Nation regarding the campaign’s most unhinged attack to date, which the President refuses to apologize for: We Never Called Romney A Felon, Just Said He Might Have Committed A Felony…)

Steve Doocy, referencing the Washington Post article, “Romney tries to regain momentum with new focus on Obama’s ‘political payoffs’“, asked Romney about  Obama’s political cronyism at the expense of middle-class workers.

“This is a tough time for the people of America, but if you’re a campaign contributor to Barack Obama, your business may stand to get billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of cash fro the government. I think it’s wrong – I think it stinks to high heaven….”

Eric Bolling ran the clip of Bill Kristal advising Romney to release more of his tax returns, saying, “some people think that would be a good way to go on offense,  what about it?”

Mitt answered that his campaign will put out two years of tax returns, one has already been released, and the most recent one is still being prepared. He correctly identified the tax demands for what they are  – an excuse for Obama’s oppo research team to pick through hundreds of pages of tax documents “to distort and be dishonest about”.

Mark Levin responded to Bill Kristal’s call for Romney to release more tax returns on his Facebook page:

The RINOs are wrong, again.

Leave it to us, conservatives, yet again, to try and win this election.

The RINOs, having told us throughout the GOP primary that Romney was the only candidate who could beat Obama, are now telling Romney to release years and years of his past tax returns to get “the issue” behind him.

To get what issue behind him? It won’t stop Obama from lying about “outsourcing” and demagoguing Romney’s career at Bain Capital. It won’t stop Obama from demagoguing Romney’s wealth and investments. And it won’t stop the media from echoing all of it. Obama’s entire campaign is built on personal attacks, lies, and class warfare. He has no intention of holding back if Romney releases more tax records. On the contrary. It provides Obama with more fodder.

RINOs are not very good at fighting the Left.  They don’t know how to deal well with the Left’s personal attacks, lies, and ideological propaganda.  And their contempt for the Right runs so deep they all but ignore our advice. They invoke Reagan but act like Ford.  Ford was a nice man but a loser.

Go on offense against Obama and his record.  Do not allow Obama to further control the issues in this campaign by helping him.  He will run his campaign the only way he knows how.  All he knows and has are the tactics he’s now employing.

At the same time, Romney must lay out his ideas in concise, compelling, and plain language, contrasting his positive, growth-oriented, pro-American agenda to Obama’s depressing, bleak, and destructive record.

Obama is an awful president. He’s incompetent and reckless. His ideology is radical and his record is disastrous.  But he’s also predictable and extremely vulnerable.

Let’s go Romney.

SEE ALSO:

Gateway Pundit: Donald Trump Unleashed: Mitt Shouldn’t Release His Records Until Obama Does