news blog | August 22, 2012 | 19 comments

The most dangerous parts of the GOP's 2012 platform

By David Shuster / current.com / @DavidShuster

If you've been raped and are trying to terminate your resulting unwanted pregnancy, you aren't going to find any support or sympathy in the Republican Party platform of 2012.

Likewise, if you are a woman and want to serve our nation in the military, or if you want to visit your same-sex partner in the hospital, or if you feel our government shouldn't build an 800-mile-long border fence that independent experts say would "waste money," the GOP 2012 platform is not pleasing.

Read more: "The War Room" staff on GOP platform politics

This week, 112 Republican convention delegates have been meeting in Tampa to hammer out a 50-page platform document that will be embraced at next week's Republican convention. The right-wing committee has already approved extreme language on key social issues and has struck down proposals that might have appealed to Republican moderates.

So much for the big tent party. On Tuesday, and with little fanfare, the GOP platform committee adopted the same harsh anti-abortion language it included in the GOP platforms of 2004 and 2008.

The statement calls for passage of a constitutional amendment that would extend legal rights to the unborn, essentially banning abortion.

Watch Jennifer Granholm dig into the politics
underlying the GOP's extreme stance on a
woman's right to choose.

The language includes no exceptions for rape or incest.

On gay rights, the platform committee not only rejected same-sex marriage, but also blocked a proposal to approve civil unions for same-sex couples. During part of the discussion, Romney adviser Jim Bopp called civil unions a "counterfeit marriage."

The gay bashing on civil unions was followed by the committee's refusal to include a line affirming the legal equality of same-sex couples. In other words, the GOP convention platform tacitly endorsed something the courts have said is illegal — discriminating against gay couples, whether it's housing, access to restaurants or even hospital visits. When it comes to the U.S. military, the GOP platform condemns what the committee called "social experimentation." The document calls for repealing policies that allow women to serve on the front lines.

Openly gay and lesbian service members should not be allowed to serve at all, according to the GOP platform.

The extreme, hard right positioning of the GOP platform also extends to immigration policies. The platform language calls for a border fence, a national E-Verify system that would make it difficult for undocumented workers to find employment and the termination of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. The committee also approved a line criticizing the Justice Department for going to court to stop state immigration laws. There was no mention of the courts that have repeatedly declared some of the draconian laws, like the one in Arizona, to be unconstitutional. In a nod to libertarians, including Ron Paul, the GOP platform calls for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve.

And to reinforce the GOP's view of Washington, D.C., as a mere colony, the 2012 platform opposes D.C. statehood. Ironically though, although the GOP doesn't want D.C. residents to have a vote in Congress, the party platform does call for more guns in the city!

Tony Perkins, who recently blamed President Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center for a shooting at the Washington headquarters of the Family Research Council, asked for and received a section that specifically calls on the D.C. City Council to expand gun rights. More guns in D.C., fewer rights for women, no rights for same-sex couples and a return to the 1950s — that's the GOP platform for 2012. Welcome to the Republican convention!

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19 comments // The most dangerous parts of the GOP's 2012 platform

  • Christians_for_Obama
  • D_C_Parker
    • 0
      D_C_Parker  
    • This shows how the GOP are out of touch with reality. We live in an extreme right area of IN. Most of my 17 yr. old son's friends think they're right-wingers like their parents, but their opinions on most of the issues in the platform are liberal to centrist. This platform will NOT attract the next generation.

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Now with the Todd Akin RAPE "doctrine" and the Todd Akin and Paul Ryan connection redefining rape in the FORCIBLE RAPE BILL with 225 House Republican co-sponsors and also the PERSONHOOD BILL can not be dismissed by Romney as just another flip flop!! The Romney Ryan ticket is sinking like the Titanic even before the Republican Convention where they are supposed to be NOMINATED next week!! Vote straight Democratic ticket on November and throw the freshman class of 2010 House Republicans out!

      The fact that Romney/Ryan purposely distort Obama's $716B cut to medicare shows me just how dishonest they are. Especially since the cut is being spent on medical care, it doesn't reduce benefits to seniors. Compare that to Ryan's proposal that cuts the same amount and the money is used to make up the difference created by tax breaks for the very rich. Why shouldn't the very rich be paying the same tax rate I am? Why should capital gains be taxed differently? Money is money. The interest on my savings, which the bank uses to invest, is taxed the same as my income. That money is still being invested.

      "The $716 billion in cuts do not affect benefits for today's seniors. Instead, they reduce provider reimbursements and are intended to curb waste, fraud and abuse." ----- And I'll bet you ten thousand dollars, Ryan / Romney did NOT mention that little bit of information to the crowd.....

      “When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure that we’re, you know – that he’s just being America’s accountant and trying to be responsible… I mean this is the same guy who voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that costs as much as my health care bill – but wasn’t paid for,” Obama said on April 15, 2011.

      In 2008, Ryan released his "Roadmap for America's Future," which described his sweeping vision for how to gut America's main entitlement programs of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. The plan made him a hero among conservative circles, and Ryan eventually remade it as his "Path to Prosperity" plan, which President Barack Obama and Democrats have criticized for embracing tax cuts for the very rich while slashing government programs that help the poor. (It wasn't just Democrats who criticized Ryan. While running for president, Newt Gingrich called Ryan's plan "right wing social engineering," which probably helped kill Gingrich's bid.)

      President Obama actually helped raise Ryan's profile on the right by critiquing the Congressman's budget, and just last year, Ryan was reportedly mulling his own run for president.

      Critics have called Ryan’s 2011 proposal the “end of Medicare as we know it,” and that’s true. Until now, Medicare has operated as a “fee-for-service” system; under Ryan’s plan, it would operate more like a voucher system, although Ryan and his aides have resisted this term.

      Medicare would cease to pay for health services directly, instead operating as a board that approves a menu of health plans for public sale and doles out predetermined lumps of money to people enrolled in Medicare, to help them buy those plans.
      After its release, the president called Ryan’s plan “fairly radical” and posited that it would “change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way,” ABC’s David Kerley reported.

      “I guess you could call that bold. I would call it short-sighted,” Obama told 500 Facebook employees and 200 other attendees at a town-hall meeting held at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., in April 2011. “Nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor or people who are powerless or don’t have lobbyists or don’t have clout.”

      The fact that Romney/Ryan purposely distort Obama's $716B cut to medicare shows me just how dishonest they are. Especially since the cut is being spent on medical care, it doesn't reduce benefits to seniors. Compare that to Ryan's proposal that cuts the same amount and the money is used to make up the difference created by tax breaks for the very rich. Why shouldn't the very rich be paying the same tax rate I am? Why should capital gains be taxed differently? Money is money. The interest on my savings, which the bank uses to invest, is taxed the same as my income. That money is still being invested.

      "The $716 billion in cuts do not affect benefits for today's seniors. Instead, they reduce provider reimbursements and are intended to curb waste, fraud and abuse." ----- And I'll bet you ten thousand dollars, Ryan / Romney did NOT mention that little bit of information to the crowd.....

      Note: The author, John F. Ince of the following article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

      There are at least 12 reasons why Mitt Romney would not make a good president. Here's John F. Ince's list. What's yours?

      1 • Romney neither understands nor represents most Americans. The man lacks empathy for those who have not had all the benefits he has had in life. His presidency would be deeply polarizing. One can easily image his election as president would generate new waves of social unrest and violence. He clearly represents the 1% and the 99% will not tolerate policies that exacerbate the growing divisions between rich and poor.

      2 • Romney's job creation claims are inflated and unrealistic. Mitt Romney's professional career was based on a very specific task: buying and selling companies for profit. He wants people to think that this qualifies him to be a job creator. With the exception of his investment in Staples and a few other early venture capital deals, his jobs creation claims are mostly chimera. He takes credit for creating jobs, when he was only an investor in those companies, not an executive. In practice, he predominantly used his power as an investor to eliminate jobs and shift other jobs overseas, all in the interest of making profits.

      3 • Romney does not have a sound fiscal plan. Extrapolating from the projections Romney has offered for increased defense spending and tax cuts, his policies would blow a hole in the Federal budget, further eroding investors faith in the government's ability to get its fiscal house in order.

      4 • Romney has little respect for the natural environment, nor a commitment to protect and preserve it for future generations.
      5 • Romney has lived a cloistered and privileged life and today has a very narrow view of the world.
      6 • Romney's worldview is rooted in intolerance.
      7 • Romney does not fully understand the transformative power of technological change.
      8 • Romney is temperamentally unfit for the presidency.
      9 • Romney lacks direct foreign policy experience.
      10 • Romney lacks integrity and honesty.
      11 • Romney has no commitment to women or equal rights. There is little in his public statements or record to suggest he feels any responsibility for advancing the interests of women and minorities.
      12 • Romney lacks sufficient charisma and personality to be a strong leader.

      Note: The author, John F. Ince of this article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

      Now with the Todd Akin RAPE "doctrine" and the Todd Akin and Paul Ryan connection redefining rape in the FORCIBLE RAPE BILL with 225 Republican co-sponsors and PERSONHOOD BILL can not be dismissed by Romney as just another flip flop!! The Romney Ryan ticket is sinking like the Titanic even before the Republican Convention where they are supposed to be NOMINATED next week!! Vote straight Democratic ticket on November 6th and throw the freshman class of 2010 House Republicans out!

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • "Given the precedent set by past seven Presidents and Presidential candidates of releasing multi-year tax returns why is Romney making an exception?" Because he has a lot to hide, apparently.

      He's the only one that knows what's in there, and apparently he's made the judgement that he's better off having us suspect the worst, rather than us knowing whats in there, which apparently in his mind is worse than anything we're likely to imagine.

      Possibilities include:

      (1) He ended up with 120 million in his 401K by the trick of agreeing with Bain to grossly undervalue the market value of his stock, then a few years later have the stock get unvalued to the stratosphere.

      (2) He participated in the tax avoidance amnesty program of a few years back, avoiding major tax penalties or prosecution.

      (3) Any one or more of the other borderline legal but very bad smelling tax dodges-- "in-kind" trades, "no-risk" trades, no-risk write-offs, the list is almost endless.

      And BTW he HASNT even released all of his 2010 return, he very conveniently left off the foreign investments and deposits form. Very convenient.

      And his argument that it would be "bothersome" to collect the tax data is a crock too-- he supposedly collected 23 years of the stuff to show to McCain in 2008.

      =============================================================

      Republicans betrayed their own conscience when they went against established Republican principles like the MANDATE over healthcare which was a Heritage foundation issue popularized by Gingrich.

      Obama did more than his share to UNITE but the Republicans were out to oppose for opposing sake and not following any policy or principles. In the famous words of Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell the Republicans were out to defeat the Obama agenda even if it went against established Republican policies set by past precedent.

      Mitch McConnell was out to make sure that President Obama remains a one term President and see where it has brought the Congress and its public esteem.

      Gingrich out of his own admission was out to defeat Obama from the day he was sworn in as President.

      You can not justify the Republicans as the "loyal" opposition as is the case in most mature democracies. They have been out to get President Obama by hook or by crook. A leader can meet the opposition half way but can not fold completely to their whims and fantasies like that of the current Tea Party affiliates.

      Republicans will loose in 2012 just like they did in 2008 but with a smaller margin because of the dark money of Billionaires due to Citizens United verdict of the right wing Supreme Court.

      =============================================================

      " ... Mitt Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union" the GOP candidate “retroactively” retired from Bain Capital after the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics began. ... "

      No body who has been drawing at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital “retroactively” retires from Bain Capital AFTER the 2002!!! Then why draw the salary of at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital if Romney retired from Bain “retroactively” !!!

      " ... Gillespie continued, "He took a leave of absence and, in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result." ... "

      However SEC documents show Mitt Romney as sole owner of all shares of Bain Capital. Romney is also shown as CEO, President and Chairman of Board of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney has been responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital. Then to run for Governor of MA Romney sought residency of MA by lieu of his Bain positions. Now either Romney was at the Olympics OR he was at BAIN.

      Only one can be true not BOTH at the same time simultaneously!!! Will the true Willard Mitt Romney stand up and accept ONE thing? Does Romney want to accept untrue SEC filings and be called a Felon or agree that he represented Bain from 1999 to 2002?

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • On Friday the 13th (7/13/2012) the very illusive Mitt Romney gave very defensive interviews to all FIVE networks on a single day at once!! Just a few days ago Mitt Romney said to FOX News that explaining means that you are WEAK. So his five interviews "explaining" his time at Bain were signs of his weakness!!

      Presidential Candidate Mr. Mitt Romney maybe feeling the heat on his role in BAIN Capital, his business experience which was supposed to be his sole criteria for creating jobs and his greatest qualification for running for the American Presidency in the current economy in 2012!

      However SEC documents show Mitt Romney as sole owner of all shares of Bain Capital. Romney is shown as CEO, President and Chairman of Board of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney has been responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital.

      Mitt Romney can not just share the good like job creation from 1999 to 2002 and leave the ugly like Bankruptcies and layoffs behind as if he had nothing to do about them from 1999 to 2002.

      If he really wanted to disassociate himself from Bain Capital he could have resigned and sold all his shares in Bain Capital in February 1999 then it would have been a different matter but to share in the glory of Bain's job creation accept a salary of $100,000 or MORE (where are the Tax Returns?) for three years and only to refuse to take the responsibility of Bankruptcies and layoffs on his WATCH (1999-2002) is trying to have it both ways and then complaining of playing politics having been caught with his hand in the proverbial Cookie Jar that is the very essence of an ACTIVE LEGAL ROLE in Bain Capital till 2002!! Was Romney getting $100,000.00 or more to do NOTHING for BAIN Capital???

      Mitt Romney will have to face the consequences of this leaving Bain "lie" that Mitt Romney has brought on upon himself. If we keep reminding the Romney campaign of the Bain exit lie and Romney's ill effects on workers robbing them of their hard earned salaries and life long benefits all the way to November then 7/13/2012 (FRIDAY the 13th) will go down as the turning point of the 2012 Presidential election!

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Two-Faced Willard

      "I was not responsible for what happened at Bain Capital" - Mitt Romney
      "I was the Sole shareholder, Sole director, Chief executive officer and President of Bain" - Mitt Romney

      "The Arizona immigration policy is a good model" – Mitt Romney
      "I didn't really support the Arizona immigration policy" – Mitt Romney

      “The Massachusetts healthcare plan should be a model for the nation” – Mitt Romney
      “Healthcare reform should be left to the states” – Mitt Romney

      "Let Detroit go bankrupt" -Mitt Romney
      "I'll take a lot of credit for saving the auto industry" -Mitt Romney

      “I believe Roe v Wade has gone too far.” – Mitt Romney
      “Roe v Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it.” – Mitt Romney

      “I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose.” – Mitt Romney
      “I never really called myself pro-choice.” – Mitt Romney

      “It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam.” – Mitt Romney
      “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and represent our country there.” – Mitt Romney

      “I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.” – Mitt Romney
      “Ronald Reagan is… my hero.” – Mitt Romney

      “I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation.” – Mitt Romney
      "There’s no question raising the minimum wage excessively causes a loss of jobs.” – Mitt Romney

      “I saw my father march with Martin Luther King.” – Mitt Romney
      “I did not see it with my own eyes.” – Mitt Romney

      “I would like to have campaign spending limits.” – Mitt Romney
      “The American people should be free to advocate for their candidates without burdensome limitations.” – Mitt Romney

      “I supported the assault weapon ban.” – Mitt Romney
      "I don’t support any gun control legislation.” – Mitt Romney

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Image
    • ROMNEY ON TRACK TO LOSE ELECTION
      Romney’s financial manipulations have, in the last 48 hours, exploded from mysterious shouldering embers into a political bonfire that could consume his entire campaign.
      Romney is calling President Obama a liar and Obama is continuing his call for Romney to release full information about his financial manipulations and more than one year of tax returns.
      Articles in the Washington Post and Boston Globe have probed and continue to probe into Romney’s convoluted finances and his years as CEO and owner of Bain Capital. Romney has called for retraction of these widely quoted articles without success.
      For a Rachel Maddow interview with the Boston Globe writer who probed Romney’s SEC reports click here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-... .
      For a broader discussion of Romney’s financial manipulations on Morning Joe click here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/morning-joe/481735... .
      Either Mitt Romney was "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" of Bain Capital from 1999-2002, when all sorts of ugly outsourcing and vulture fund activities were taking place, or he was just listed as "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" on the company's documents, which means he was simply a figurehead collecting cash generated by said ugly outsourcing and vulture fund activities.
      There appears to be more than ample multiple evidence that Romney is not telling the truth about completely leaving Bain after 1999. If you want to read all the details:
      1. Click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt... ;
      2. Click here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-... ;
      3.Click here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/romne... ;
      4. Click here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/b... .
      And these articles on Romney/Bain only scratch the surface. After the Boston Globe article on Thursday the Internet lit up like a Christmas tree as everyone with access seemed to have something to report.
      More MoJo coverage of Mitt Romney (http://www.motherjones.com/category/tags/romn... ):
      ►The Mystery of Romney's Exit From Bain:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/m... ;
      ►Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/r... ;
      ►Romney Tax Tips: 10 Ways to Stiff the IRS:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/t... ;
      ►Mitt Romney's Long History of Misremembering His Past:http://www.motherjones.co m/politics/2012/06/mitt-romney -history-problem;
      ►Get-Rich-Quick Profiteers Love Mitt Romney, and He Loves Them Back:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/m... ;
      ►How Romney Fibs—and Gets Away With It:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/r... .
      Of course the Obama campaign wasted no time getting out TV ads on the subject. One of the most recent has Romney singing “God Bless America” while the graphics pound him for his financial manipulations. Click here:http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/14... . Voters in the swing states are getting their first glimpse behind the mask of Romney’s polished campaign performance.

      This all brings back Richard Nixon’s famous statement,“I am not a crook.”

      The problem for Romney is that it is impossible for him to win an election campaign based on whether or not he is a potential criminal who has lied on legally required reports. Every day the media probes deeper into the Romney financial paper trail and reveals more and more conflicts between Romney’s personally signed reports and his recorded campaign statements is a day closer to his political defeat. If the present political bonfire doesn’t die down soon the GOP may decide at its late August convention to throw Romney under the bus.

      Ed Schlick
      WOLFEBORO, N.H.(AP)— President Barack Obama is keeping up a drumbeat of skepticism over Mitt Romney's insistence — displayed in a blitz of TV interviews — that he stepped down from his private equity firm years earlier than federal records indicate.

      Obama planned another day of campaigning in Virginia on Saturday, a state he won in 2008 but before that last supported a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. Advisers said he would remind voters of the discrepancies between Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Romney's recollection of his role at the Boston-based firm.

      His re-election campaign released an ad that repeated its allegation that Romney's Bain Capital shipped American jobs to China and Mexico; that Romney has personal wealth in investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands; and that as governor of Massachusetts, he outsourced state jobs to India.

      "Mitt Romney's not the solution. He's the problem," Obama's latest ad says as it plays video of Romney awkwardly singing "America the Beautiful."

      The ad was set to run in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

      The ad, targeting Romney's vast personal wealth, comes as Democrats — and some Republicans — call for Romney to release tax returns going back several years. Romney has said anew that he won't go beyond releasing his 2010 tax records and, before the election, his 2011 taxes.

      "You can never satisfy the opposition research team of the Obama organization," Romney told CBS on Friday. In the same round of interviews in which he defended his account of his role at Bain, Romney said Obama owed him an apology for an aide's suggestion that the Security and Exchange Commission filings, if false, could bring a felony charge.

      "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," Romney told ABC.

      It wasn't just Obama, though, pushing the presumptive Republican nominee to put the issue of his tax returns and wealth to rest.

      "There is no whining in politics," chided John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist. "Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns."

      For full AP article click here: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-07-14/bai...

      Contact:
      Ed Schlick
      Executive Director
      Maine People’s Voting Coalition
      E-mail eschlick@roadrunner.com

      YOU CAN JOIN THE COALITION – JUST SEND AN E-MAIL TO GET INFORMATION

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney’s Republican rivals:

      1. “The idea that you’ve got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that’s not what the Republican Party’s about.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]

      2. “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]

      3. “Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

      4. “We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” — Newt Gingrich [Globe and Mail, 1/9/12]

      5. “Now, I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company, Bain Capital, of all the jobs that they killed” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/9/12]

      6) “He claims he created 100,000 jobs. The Washington Post, two days ago, reported in their fact check column that he gets three Pinocchios. Now, a Pinocchio is what you get from The Post if you’re not telling the truth.” — Newt Gingrich [1/13/12, NBC News]

      7. “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that’s indefensible” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

      8. “If Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, then I would be glad to then listen to him” — Newt Gingrich [Mediaite, 12/14/11]

      9. “If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused it.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/8/12]

      10. “They’re vultures that sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass. They leave with that and they leave the skeleton” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

      Just last night, Newt Gingrich defended his attacks, saying “I think there are things you can legitimately look at in Bain Capital. I think there are things you can legitimately look at in anybody’s record, including Mitt Romney’s record.”

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Note: The author, John F. Ince of this article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

      There are at least 12 reasons why Mitt Romney would not make a good president. Here's John F. Ince's list. What's yours?

      1 • Romney neither understands nor represents most Americans. The man lacks empathy for those who have not had all the benefits he has had in life. His presidency would be deeply polarizing. One can easily image his election as president would generate new waves of social unrest and violence. He clearly represents the 1% and the 99% will not tolerate policies that exacerbate the growing divisions between rich and poor.

      2 • Romney's job creation claims are inflated and unrealistic. Mitt Romney's professional career was based on a very specific task: buying and selling companies for profit. He wants people to think that this qualifies him to be a job creator. With the exception of his investment in Staples and a few other early venture capital deals, his jobs creation claims are mostly chimera. He takes credit for creating jobs, when he was only an investor in those companies, not an executive. In practice, he predominantly used his power as an investor to eliminate jobs and shift other jobs overseas, all in the interest of making profits.

      3 • Romney does not have a sound fiscal plan. Extrapolating from the projections Romney has offered for increased defense spending and tax cuts, his policies would blow a hole in the Federal budget, further eroding investors faith in the government's ability to get its fiscal house in order.

      4 • Romney has little respect for the natural environment, nor a commitment to protect and preserve it for future generations. He blindly subscribes to Republican views that climate change is not scientifically proven. He gives no indication of any desire to develop alternative sources of energy that can mitigate the man made sources of pollutants. Instead he supports the rollback of environmental regulations all but giving companies a green light to pollute the environment and waste vital natural resources.

      5 • Romney has lived a cloistered and privileged life and today has a very narrow view of the world. From the Cranbrook School to Brigham Young University, to Harvard Business School to Bain Capital, it's difficult to imagine anyone who has been less exposed to the lives and conditions under which most Americans live. The covenants of his Mormon faith are extremely rigid, restrictive and unrealistic. His devotion to his faith is admirable, but his inability to step beyond the confines of that religion suggest that he would have difficulty reconciling who he is with who others are in an increasingly diverse world.

      6 • Romney's worldview is rooted in intolerance. He has a very narrow view of the world. America today is a diverse nation with many different racial groups, faiths, all in need of respect. The bully incident at his prep school and his aggressive corporate behavior buying and selling companies at Bain Capital suggest someone who has little desire help those who are different, less fortunate and in weaker position than him.

      7 • Romney does not fully understand the transformative power of technological change. Mitt has no professional technical training. Most of the companies he invested in at Bain were low tech. His expertise is finance: specifically buying and selling companies. All this suggests someone who will pay lip service to the tech sector, but won't fully grasp the potential for transforming the economy and culture through advancing technology.

      8 • Romney is temperamentally unfit for the presidency. He is peevish, controlling and less than transparent. He has a rigid worldview that revolves around what is best for himself and a small circle of those who support him.

      9 • Romney lacks direct foreign policy experience. His four years as Governor of Massachusetts do not give him sufficient knowledge or expertise to effectively deal with an increasingly complex world. On the job learners nearly always make blunders, sometimes blunders so large that they create huge problems for the U. S..

      10 • Romney lacks integrity and honesty. His fudging of issues is a sign that he feels he can head fake his way though difficult debates. His statement that he does not remember the prep school bully incident is implausible. His evasiveness over release of tax forms and embellishment of his accomplishments are all red flags. His decisions as an executive at Bain Capital were not rooted in ethical behavior. The man is simply not forthright enough to earn the trust of the American people.

      11 • Romney has no commitment to women or equal rights. There is little in his public statements or record to suggest he feels any responsibility for advancing the interests of women and minorities.

      12 • Romney lacks sufficient charisma and personality to be a strong leader. The country needs someone to lead forcefully and inspire citizens to tackle problems that threaten the diminishment of American stature on the world stage. Romney's robotic and reptilian personality fails to connect, leaving people feeling that Romney is in the game only for himself, rather than in it for the good of all.

      Note: The author, John F. Ince of this article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

    • 9 months ago
  • Ajay_Jain
    • 0
      Ajay_Jain  
    • Now with the Todd Akin RAPE "doctrine" and the Todd Akin and Paul Ryan connection redefining rape in the FORCIBLE RAPE BILL with 225 House Republican co-sponsors and also the PERSONHOOD BILL can not be dismissed by Romney as just another flip flop! The Romney Ryan ticket is sinking like the Titanic even before the Republican Convention where they are supposed to be NOMINATED next week! Vote straight Democratic ticket on November and throw the freshman class of 2010 House Republicans out!

      The fact that Romney/Ryan purposely distort Obama's $716B cut to medicare shows me just how dishonest they are. Especially since the cut is being spent on medical care, it doesn't reduce benefits to seniors. Compare that to Ryan's proposal that cuts the same amount and the money is used to make up the difference created by tax breaks for the very rich. Why shouldn't the very rich be paying the same tax rate I am? Why should capital gains be taxed differently? Money is money. The interest on my savings, which the bank uses to invest, is taxed the same as my income. That money is still being invested.

      "The $716 billion in cuts do not affect benefits for today's seniors. Instead, they reduce provider reimbursements and are intended to curb waste, fraud and abuse." ----- And I'll bet you ten thousand dollars, Ryan / Romney did NOT mention that little bit of information to the crowd.....

      “When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure that we’re, you know – that he’s just being America’s accountant and trying to be responsible… I mean this is the same guy who voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that costs as much as my health care bill – but wasn’t paid for,” Obama said on April 15, 2011.

      In 2008, Ryan released his "Roadmap for America's Future," which described his sweeping vision for how to gut America's main entitlement programs of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. The plan made him a hero among conservative circles, and Ryan eventually remade it as his "Path to Prosperity" plan, which President Barack Obama and Democrats have criticized for embracing tax cuts for the very rich while slashing government programs that help the poor. (It wasn't just Democrats who criticized Ryan. While running for president, Newt Gingrich called Ryan's plan "right wing social engineering," which probably helped kill Gingrich's bid.)

      President Obama actually helped raise Ryan's profile on the right by critiquing the Congressman's budget, and just last year, Ryan was reportedly mulling his own run for president.

      Critics have called Ryan’s 2011 proposal the “end of Medicare as we know it,” and that’s true. Until now, Medicare has operated as a “fee-for-service” system; under Ryan’s plan, it would operate more like a voucher system, although Ryan and his aides have resisted this term. Medicare would cease to pay for health services directly, instead operating as a board that approves a menu of health plans for public sale and doles out predetermined lumps of money to people enrolled in Medicare, to help them buy those plans.

      After its release, the president called Ryan’s plan “fairly radical” and posited that it would “change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way,” ABC’s David Kerley reported.

      “I guess you could call that bold. I would call it short-sighted,” Obama told 500 Facebook employees and 200 other attendees at a town-hall meeting held at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., in April 2011. “Nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor or people who are powerless or don’t have lobbyists or don’t have clout.”.

      The fact that Romney/Ryan purposely distort Obama's $716B cut to medicare shows me just how dishonest they are. Especially since the cut is being spent on medical care, it doesn't reduce benefits to seniors. Compare that to Ryan's proposal that cuts the same amount and the money is used to make up the difference created by tax breaks for the very rich. Why shouldn't the very rich be paying the same tax rate I am? Why should capital gains be taxed differently? Money is money. The interest on my savings, which the bank uses to invest, is taxed the same as my income. That money is still being invested.

      "The $716 billion in cuts do not affect benefits for today's seniors. Instead, they reduce provider reimbursements and are intended to curb waste, fraud and abuse." ----- And I'll bet you ten thousand dollars, Ryan / Romney did NOT mention that little bit of information to the crowd.....

      Note: The author, John F. Ince of the following article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

      There are at least 12 reasons why Mitt Romney would not make a good president. Here's John F. Ince's list. What's yours?

      1 • Romney neither understands nor represents most Americans. The man lacks empathy for those who have not had all the benefits he has had in life. His presidency would be deeply polarizing. One can easily image his election as president would generate new waves of social unrest and violence. He clearly represents the 1% and the 99% will not tolerate policies that exacerbate the growing divisions between rich and poor.

      2 • Romney's job creation claims are inflated and unrealistic. Mitt Romney's professional career was based on a very specific task: buying and selling companies for profit. He wants people to think that this qualifies him to be a job creator. With the exception of his investment in Staples and a few other early venture capital deals, his jobs creation claims are mostly chimera. He takes credit for creating jobs, when he was only an investor in those companies, not an executive. In practice, he predominantly used his power as an investor to eliminate jobs and shift other jobs overseas, all in the interest of making profits.

      3 • Romney does not have a sound fiscal plan. Extrapolating from the projections Romney has offered for increased defense spending and tax cuts, his policies would blow a hole in the Federal budget, further eroding investors faith in the government's ability to get its fiscal house in order.

      4 • Romney has little respect for the natural environment, nor a commitment to protect and preserve it for future generations.

      5 • Romney has lived a cloistered and privileged life and today has a very narrow view of the world.
      6 • Romney's worldview is rooted in intolerance.
      7 • Romney does not fully understand the transformative power of technological change.
      8 • Romney is temperamentally unfit for the presidency.
      9 • Romney lacks direct foreign policy experience.
      10 • Romney lacks integrity and honesty.
      11 • Romney has no commitment to women or equal rights. There is little in his public statements or record to suggest he feels any responsibility for advancing the interests of women and minorities.
      12 • Romney lacks sufficient charisma and personality to be a strong leader.

      Note: The author, John F. Ince of this article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

      Now with the Todd Akin RAPE "doctrine" and the Todd Akin and Paul Ryan connection redefining rape in the FORCIBLE RAPE BILL with 225 Republican co-sponsors and PERSONHOOD BILL can not be dismissed by Romney as just another flip flop! The Romney Ryan ticket is sinking like the Titanic even before the Republican Convention where they are supposed to be NOMINATED next week! Vote straight Democratic ticket on November 6th and throw the freshman class of 2010 House Republicans out!

    • 9 months ago
  • concerned_citizen
  • concerned_citizen
    • 0
      concerned_citizen  
    • I have no idea what was done at the RNC "war room" but pretty sure this article is twisting the truth. So extending legal rights to the unborn sounds harsh? What?! Why should unborn babies have no rights? And why should unborn babies be killed because they are victims of rape or incest. It was not their doing. I just seriously doubt the GOP platform "tacitly" or any other way endorses discriminating against gay couples regarding houses, access to restaurants or hospital visits. Regarding military women on front lines, I hope the article got that right. No matter whether God or something else made women, women are different from men. Men are physically stronger. Our fighting personnel do not need the distraction of women beside them. They will be distracted by women who can't keep up. and they will be distracted because men are naturally attracted to women. I think those who think this is a good idea have watched too many movies. Regarding illegal immigrants, for Pete's sake, they're breaking the law! How does that give them the right to cheaper college tuition than legal citizens?

    • 9 months ago
  • Steamed_N_More
    • 0
      Steamed_N_More  
    • Remember the GOP aren't carpenters. You can see that the platform is composed of loose and crooked planks, dangerous to walk on, but conveniently, adjustable for appearances. A temporary construction that masks the truer aim, of politial and cultural domination of the country and beyond.

    • 9 months ago
  • tverdell
    • 0
      tverdell  
    • The irony is that their daughters get a trip to France while poor women will have to endanger their own lives.

      They take on no risk by outlawing abortion.

    • 9 months ago
  • Amanda_Creasia
    • 0
      Amanda_Creasia  
    • Hey bruceUSA you are an idiot, and I believe that you should have absolutley no say in what i do with my uterus, or who people chose to love, and I wish I could ban you from ever voting.
      However, my opinion is irrelevant because my values, and view are completley objective and bias to my own experiences. You can not say that "hard work and family values would go a long way" b/c that is very much your clearly narrow view of what that means, you cannot push those onto others.
      Plus the 1950's was awful, for starters the south was still segregated.

    • 9 months ago
  • bruceUSA
    • 0
      bruceUSA  
    • Hey David Shuster maybe returning to the 50's isn't a bad Idea at all. The "free for all" era we're in right now seems to perpetuate self-destruction and turmoil with no positive results --- just things getting more outrages and worse!!! Hard work and family values would go a long way right about NOW!!!

    • 9 months ago
  • tverdell
    • 0
      tverdell  
    • bruceUSA:

      Why do you think John Galt said 'get the hell out of my way'. Any rand despised social conservatism just as much as big government. Right now, social conservatism is standing in the way of John Galt.

    • 9 months ago
  • ethelfreda
  • I_Tank_Reservoir
    • +1
      I_Tank_Reservoir  
    • There are only two choices. Obama is the worst choice of both. One says let hell rule in abstention, the other does not think much of hell for rule. Let us assume hell is a psychological characteristic of mean spirited and what is against it feels once you have food, clothing, and shelter the group that has it welcomes you. You need to do something’s on your own. Everyone likes a game at the top, someone only needs to see it through.

    • 9 months ago
jopiazza
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