The Romney Campaign is Imploding

[fred41]

It seems to me that both parties are doing this, but at least the Democrat's approach seems to be to balance some of it with programming for the middleclass and poor.

Wise old Yoda speaketh TRUTH, he does, too bad he's in with that goddam MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!!!!!
What happened this week is that maybe some of those 47%ers that are republican, maybe had a moment of clarity. Maybe they're figuring out that their Fearless Leader, Mitt Romney, considers THEM the THEM!!

Yes...but accordingly then, the Obama campaign should then run on the slogan: I'm an asshole too, just not as big an asshole as Romney. Vote for the lesser of two assholes in 2012!


(unimportant point though...I don't remember waste disposal to ever be free..it's either covered by your taxes or private pickup)

[Ben]

Anyone seen the flick: The Game starring Michael Douglas? He, essentially, reprises his role as Gordon Gekko. Basically: Mitt Romney....
Quoting American radio host and author David Sirota: "Like every corporate scoundrel dragged before Congress, (Nicholas) Van Orton describes his soul-pulverizing work in anodyne terms. “I move money from one place to another,” he tells one acquaintance. Contrary to such bromides, though, he is as recognizable to us as today’s pampered Wall Street executives who exist in a hermetically sealed bubble of privilege and power. In Fincher’s caricature of this timeless brute, Van Orton’s $2,000 loafers almost never touch the macadam. Indeed, as a CNBC soundtrack thrums in the background, he floats from his manse, to his BMW, to his towering Van Orton Building to the scotch-and-cigar city club — all while orchestrating hostile takeovers via his cellphone."
Essentially they -- the likes of Van Orton and, too, Romney -- don't see and experience the policies they put in place.
This doesn't mean to say they're necessarily bad people. They've simply INTERNALIZED the corporate structure. I'm sure Romney is nice to his wife, kids, friends etc. But at Bain, again, well, money/capital takes precedence over people. And has to.
Much like the CEO of McDonald's can't care about pigs, cows, chickens. I mean, he or she has to see them as having no value. Well, only monetary value for him/her-self and the stockholders. They've value. Whereas chickens don't. Cows don't. Pigs don't. They're valueless.
Same with any oil company executive. Pollution, cancer rates, global warming are mere externalities. (Externalities are costs to others. Like, say, a chemical factory emits wastage as a by-product into nearby rivers and into the atmosphere. This creates negative externalities which impose higher social costs on other firms and consumers. e.g. clean up costs and health costs. Another example of higher social costs comes from the problems caused by traffic congestion in towns, cities and on major roads and motorways.)
Companies would be IRRATIONAL if they were to take that into account. Plus it'd go against actual market principles. In order for MARKETS TO WORK: you need sellers to BEAR the full -- the FULL -- costs of what they produce. Never happens.
So, therefore markets are a big sham.
As Adam Smith, again, wrote: Merchants and manufactures (today: corporations and essentially executives) put in place policies that serve their interests regardless of the "grievous" impact on others.
That applies to outsourcing &/or offshoring, to global warming, to pollution and cancer rates.
An executive has to be pathological. Has to. And, too, it goes against who we are. The core, the absolute core, and it's hardwired into us, is empathy. Human beings are empathetic creatures. Well, again, an executive cannot be empathetic.
Again, you cannot be empathetic when you're a CEO. You can't be. Capital is important. People aren't. Nor should they be. To care about other people is simply irrational.

[Ben]

[Willie Escalade]

I love that movie! CRS just kept fucking with him!

[flabbybody]

The night of November 6 when Romney gives his concession speech is the last time I ever want to see his scumbag face.

end of post

[Prospero]

Pawlenty quits Republican Presidential campaign

His new job? Why, lobbying for the deregulation of investment banks.

Pawlenty to Lead Wall Street Lobbying Group

By ALAN ZIBEL And VICTORIA MCGRANE

Tim Pawlenty, a top Mitt Romney backer and onetime presidential hopeful, will lead a major Wall Street lobbying group, giving up the chance for an administration position if Mr. Romney is elected president.

The 51-year-old Republican former governor of Minnesota will become chief executive of the Financial Services Roundtable effective Nov. 1, the group said Thursday. He succeeds Steve Bartlett, the former Dallas mayor and Texas congressman who announced plans to retire earlier this year.

Mr. Pawlenty said that as a condition of his hiring he agreed to resign his post as national co-chairman of the Romney campaign and not to serve in the administration if Mr. Romney is elected. On the short list to be Mr. Romney's running mate, Mr. Pawlenty was seen as a candidate for a plum post in a Romney administration.

The timing of Mr. Pawlenty's move led some observers to speculate that he chose to leave Mr. Romney during a difficult time for the campaign. But a friend of Mr. Pawlenty said the former governor had been looking for a private-sector job since abandoning his bid for the White House. Mr. Pawlenty was in talks with the Roundtable for at least four months, said Scott Talbott, the group's head of government affairs.

Mr. Pawlenty will likely raise the profile of the Roundtable, which represents the 100 largest U.S. financial-services companies, including banks like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. The Roundtable is among the industry groups pressing lawmakers to undo or alter parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law, a push that will intensify after election season passes.

Regardless of who wins the White House, the financial industry will almost certainly need bipartisan support for any changes to pass CongressMr. Pawlenty, a conservative from a largely liberal state, is seen by the chief executives who selected him and others as someone who can work with both sides of the aisle.

"People have been used to seeing him in somewhat of a partisan prism for the last year or so, but the reality is as governor of Minnesota he worked very effectively with Republicans and Democrats," said Phil Musser, a friend and former political adviser to Mr. Pawlenty.

The new role also represents a change in fortunes for Mr. Pawlenty, whose income has been modest during a career in public service. Mr. Bartlett, the outgoing CEO, made about $1.8 million in 2010, according to a tax filing.

Observers in Washington have noted Mr. Pawlenty's lack of a financial background, but some see his outsider status as an advantage. "He understands the bigger problem the banks have, which is a huge PR problem, a huge political problem," said one Republican operative.

In a break from the financial industry, Mr. Pawlenty urged lawmakers not to raise the federal debt ceiling last summer while the Roundtable lobbied Congress the other way.

One of his top priorities will be to restore the industry's tarnished reputation, he said. Asked in his job interview how the industry should improve its image, Mr. Pawlenty said he responded, "Stop doing stupid things."

Mr. Pawlenty said his new organization seeks to modify the Dodd-Frank law rather than repeal it outright as some Republicans—including Mr. Romney— have pledged to do.

The son of a truck driver, Mr. Pawlenty made his working-class appeal the centerpiece of his presidential campaign last year. But his campaign didn't gain much traction, and Mr. Pawlenty dropped out of the race in August 2011.

He has called himself as a "Sam's Club Republican," a term he coined to differentiate himself from his opponent for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, who Mr. Pawlenty said was more comfortable in a country club.

Mr. Pawlenty said he saw no contradiction between his blue-collar background and his new job, saying that a healthy financial sector is vital to spurring job growth. Financial institutions, he said, provide "the fuel that goes into that engine."

[flabbybody]

Pawlenty fits perfectly the profile of a bank lobbyist. Middle aged white guy with a decent golf game. last original idea, college. Sense of social obligation, below zero. Does he know anything about banking? well maybe he took some economic course back in his university days. Probably the less you know the better.
Old Republicans are all the same. After a few years of mediocre public service they feel entitled to cash in on the notoriety they've managed to attain. I'm sure Gov Perry of Texas will take the same path.

[onmyknees]

From the Chicago Sun Times.. ( not Fox News, not the Wall Street Journal)



Media cover for Obama’s failures

BY STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com September 20, 2012 5:52PM


President Barack Obama participates in a town hall hosted by Univision and Univision news anchors Jorge Ramos (left) and Maria Elena Salinas (center) at the University of Miami, Thursday in Coral Gables, Fla. | CAROLYN KASTER~AP

Election news: Conventions, local races, more The Sun-Times Politics blog
Updated: September 21, 2012 11:29AM





Each new day seems to bring further evidence of the unremitting failure of President Barack Obama’s economic and foreign policies. Yet the presidential contest remains even, due in large part to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s failure to articulate a specific economic reform agenda and to the mainstream media’s obsession with what Obama-friendly commentators see as Romney’s gaffes.




The media narrative is Romney has had a bad couple of weeks with less-than-artful or ill-timed remarks about the growth of government dependency and Obama’s failed foreign policy. Still, Obama has had his own bad couple of weeks, on the economic front as well as abroad — though the media haven’t spotlighted it as they have with Romney.
New Census Bureau figures show median household income fell or was flat last year in 37 states — mirroring data released a week ago showing national median household income is down to mid-1990s levels. This drop came amid the Obama recovery, the weakest rebound from a recession in modern history.
Another report filled in details behind the nation’s persistently high unemployment, 43 months above 8 percent. Small businesses are a prime generator of jobs, yet fewer new firms are being established. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of startups peaked at 667,000 in 2006 and has declined ever since, reaching 548,000 in 2009 and dropping again to 505,000 in 2010, the first full year of the recovery.
“The state of entrepreneurship in the United States is, sadly, weaker than ever,” observes Tim Kane of the Hudson Institute who analyzed the numbers. He cites “anecdotal evidence that the U.S. policy environment has become inadvertently hostile to entrepreneurial employment.” That includes uncertainty over taxes and regulations, among them the looming new taxes and rules from ObamaCare.
Further fallout from ObamaCare: It will raise taxes on 6 million Americans for failing to meet its insurance mandate, reports the Congressional Budget Office. That’s 50 percent higher than the previous estimate. Most of that tax hike will fall on the middle class.
More evidence of the failure of Obama’s economic policies was the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a third round of “quantitative easing” — Fedspeak for printing money to boost Wall Street trading in hopes that will trickle down to more jobs. How effective it will be remains to be seen, but it will keep interest rates at near zero, a disheartening blow to seniors trying to live off their life savings. The Fed policy also will likely fuel commodity prices, meaning higher food and energy costs further eroding household budgets. That is, unless a possibly looming global downturn — meaning more unemployment — depresses oil prices.
The news is no better on foreign policy. Even the administration is backing away from U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s farcical claim that the wave of anti-American riots were a spontaneous reaction to an obscure Internet video. And Obama’s “reset” with Russia is faring no better than his outreach to the Muslim world. Moscow kicked out the U.S. Agency for International Development, which promotes democracy and human rights, claiming it meddles in Russian politics.
From the American kitchen table to the U.S. business environment to the unemployment line to the Arab street to Russian diplomacy, Obama’s policies have been a failure. Who wants four more years of that?


Yet none of these facts deter you all from your blind loyality...which by the way is fine.....you'll vote for Barry if the unemployment is 15% (which in reality it is) because he's black, because he's smooth, because he's generational, because he's entertaining on Letterman, and hip.....again that's all fine, it's your
prerogative as an American voter. What I find utterly disingenuous and downright intellectually dishonest when you come on here and try to defy facts and real life evidence that he's done a good job, or that the hill suddenly has been just to hard to climb. Judge him by his own promises and assurances, by his own words ....but Just be honest about your reasons for voting and I might have some respect for you. Slick Willie has proven to be a bit of a political sage when it comes to Barry. He is in fact a rank "Amateur". Deal with it....vote for him by all means, but don't bullshit me about the reasons.... It's comical in light of all the facts and the misery we're enduring on a daily basis.

[Prospero]

And OMK sincerely believes Romney and his band of fools will do a better job. They will - for the top four per cent of the US population.

The trillions of dollars of debt the US is now saddled with was in large part because of the criminal war in Iraq prosecuted by Bush and the neo-cons. Funny how dear old George W is never mentioned these days. You ashamed of him?

[Prospero]

What you don't mention is that the piece from the Sun Times is a think piece. Perfectly legitimate for that - but an opinion piece. Not objective reportage. Many of the better informed American liberals on this board would argue with the claims and assertions made in that piece of polemic.