THURSTON HOWELL ROMNEY
DAVID BROOKS
NEW YORK TIMES
The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor. Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. ...The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.
MITT ROMNEY LOST THE ELECTION
JOSH BARRO
BLOOMBERG VIEW
You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser...has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president. ...Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers. Romney has been vigorously denying President Obama's claims that his tax plan would raise taxes on the middle class. Now, he's been caught on video suggesting that low- and middle-income Americans are undertaxed. ...The really disastrous thing is the clip about "victims," and the combination of contempt and pity that Romney shows for anyone who isn't going to vote for him. Romney is the most opaque presidential nominee since Nixon, and people have been reduced to guessing what his true feelings are. This video provides an answer: He feels that you're a loser. It's not an answer that wins elections.
Must-Read Op-Eds for Sept. 17, 2012
A FOREIGN POLICY ADRIFT
MICHAEL GERSON
WASHINGTON POST
The largest failure of Obama’s approach to the Middle East is its apparent geopolitical randomness. Support for Iran’s Green Revolution was late and grudging — as though courageous reformers were intruding on Obama’s engagement of the regime. The president dramatically escalated the Afghan war before conveying an impression of heading for the exits. After wringing its hands, the administration took needed action in Libya. After wringing its hands, it has remained on the sidelines in Syria. The main consistency has been the wringing part. In the absence of an organizing principle, flexibility becomes ambiguity. Other nations know exactly what Iran is after, what Russia is after, what Israel is after. They are left to guess at American intentions. The risk is that they will cease to care.
THE MYTH OF BARACK THE LIBERATOR
MARC A. THIESSEN
WASHINGTON POST
Across the [Middle East], people see the United States in retreat. They see Obama pulling all U.S. forces out of Iraq and preparing to do the same in Afghanistan. They see an American ambassador killed in Libya, the flag of al-Qaeda raised over our embassy in Egypt, and our diplomats fleeing from Khartoum and Tunis. Instead of looking to the United States and asking, “Where are you, Obama?”, the crowds in Cairo today are chanting, “Obama, we are all Osama.” The failure of Obama’s policies in the Middle East is not the fall of dictators in Cairo and Tripoli; it is the failure of leadership in Washington. On taking office, Obama promised to usher in a new era of popularity in the region. Well, ask yourself this: Are we more popular now than we were four years ago?
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Mr. Romney finally speaks from the heart.
He will dismiss 47% of Americans as beneath his consideration. He will be the President of the 53% (or whatever percentage of the population votes for him.)
This was no gaffe.
A gaffe is when one misspeaks.
This was not a mistake.
Mr. Romney was telling it as he believed.
For the first time, we hear a man speaking confidently, eloquently, because he is saying what he believes.
Who knew. We had thought he was just a candidate uncomfortable with oratory. No, he was a man who was hiding what he really believed and unable to do it artfully.
Yes, Mr. Romney has finally told the truth.
And that is the problem.
Goodbye, Mr. Romney.
Go away.
Go to your multiple homes, or to Switzerland or to the Caymans or wherever else you can be with your millions (or is it billions?)
Go away and don't come back.
Please.
Question for Donny tomorrow (tweets say he will be there). Romney went in on the premise that he was a business guy, who ran things like a business guy runs thing, and that was what America needs. TO date he has demonstrated no ability at long term or even medium term planning, no clear policy goals, no ability to anticipate entirely predictable problems (an attack in the middle east, who would have thought?). He generally seems in an events directed rudderless tailspin, allowing the media cycle to buffet him in any direction it pleases. His staffing choices look as if he lacks all hiring aptitude, and assuming chuck todd is correct his schedule is something i would expect from a college sophomore. In short, Mitt Romney appears to have exactly zero comprehension of what the words "Dedication", "Focus" "Leadership", or "Hard Work" even mean.
My question to donny is this ; Is this emblematic of the American business community more broadly? Romney was touted by multiple business leaders as highly effective, but his performance to date is everything but. So why where so many people saying he was? Has corporate America lost all sense of what hard work even is? What competence or motivation even looks like? Is Mitt Romney's performance the last few weeks emblematic of American corporate culture more broadly, and how can we possibly expect these CEO's to direct our economy anywhere but down if it is?
Resting idly between the various strata of Romney's entitled 47% I happen to have a good bit of free time to reflect on his recent comments. There is so much to say about this so I'm going to say very little to give room. Romney could have said everything he did about entitlements and instead of declaring his soverienty from this demographic, said "This group of Americans is exactly the group that I most want to connect to. This is the group I want to inspire and help.". If he had used this polarized issue as an opportunity to show America that he wanted to be the president of the lower class as well as the dwindling middle and booming upper class, I would have been blind sided and mezmorized by his leadership potential. As it went though, he performed predictably, and clearly stated that he had no regard or interest in nearly half of the American people. So rather than forgive him for his silver spoon I must take this opportunity to point out the irony in his message. For it is Romney's culture that takes the cake of entitlement. Having inherited the voice of capital He is the true benefactor of government. He is the one who has bought the government and willingly takes taxpayer afforded corporate wellfare. Everything he is has been given to him from either his father or the government. So who is entitled Romney? The single mother working 3 jobs and taking care of her kid who has cancer. Or you Romney, with your assortment of golden parachutes, or should I say golden safety nets, paid for by the blood sweat and tears of the working poor.