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| Romney (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service) |
Obama has that "X" Factor - at least on the surface - and Mitt Romney decidedly does not have it - on the surface or deeper. George Bush 43 didn't have it at all either. He was downright vacuous. Even nice Ike Eisenhower was known for his salty language and terribly confused communication, comprised of broken disjointed sentences, that the press was forever cleaning up before delivering his message to the public.
Yet America keeps on electing the socially awkward and the relationship insensitive. Looks like Romney is well on his way to the White House. He sure is trotting around the globe this past week meeting with world leaders like a trial run. And the Obama presidency was an anomaly that looks like it is soon to be corrected by disgruntled voters.
American humorist Mark Twain opines on how to write - check it out!
Romney hasn't even made it to Labor Day and already he is King of Dog Abuse for riding the dog on top of the car on a family vacation years ago. Let's see; he also goes to the United Kingdom on the eve of hosting their first Olympics since 1948 and what does he do? Yeah, he insults the Prime Minister and London's Mayor on their own turf and on international television. Well, that went over well - with America receiving plenty of deserved booing from the British stands.
Now Romney just wound up his tour with Israel to see who he can insult over there. All this from the Savior of Big Banks and the Patron Saint of Corporate Raiders. Oddly enough, Team Romney took to heart the complaints from Team Obama and the world this week. Team Obama returned Romney's insults with concise and accurate observations of how Romney is no careful diplomat when it comes to international relations.
Since that searing criticism in the press Romney backed up on his criticism of Obama overseas. After all, it really is bad form to disagree with your sitting President while traveling overseas and running for office. Besides, you may never know when you will find yourself in his position. A pesky rude candidate can get in the way and mess up your negotiations with another country just because he is trying to score points with the voters back home.
Well, Romney did refocus after the current criticism from the United Kingdom Olympics gaffe. Instead of insulting the Israelis - whose culture he attempted to praise - he insulted the Palestinians. Talk about not smart. He and his team should have possessed enough sense - and time - reading up on the region to fully understand the cultural conflicts.
You just don't assume the other countries are willing to play along with your political strategies meant to win the race in America. Unfortunately, all that attitude reveals is how terribly self-absorbed and arrogant are our American political campaigns.
The other countries don't care about our election. They do care about their long-running feuds and cultural clashes. They sure are not going to take a Time Out just to give an awkward American presidential candidate some breathing room.
Funny quote by denny lyon on job openings in Congress: what you have to do to qualify.
So, what was Romney actually hoping to accomplish on this world tour besides getting the international press to cover him for free exposure, collect campaign money from the Jewish and Polish sectors in America and raise his standing in the world community? His original focus was to trumpet how completely unrestrained free enterprise, so-called small government and the culture of self-reliance all combine to create success and national prosperity.
Team Romney thought they could riff off of the successes of Israel and Poland to prove their point. The problem with that is that both countries have governments that helped created business start-ups and provided other favorable conditions for those businesses to succeed.
Israel boasts a national health care program worthy of any socialist government rather than a non-interfering capitalist one. And Israel's innovative product development? It's their military - government not free enterprise - that is central to that success.
Poland was celebrated as the rare European country not troubled by deep economic recession. Romney believes their economy is so strong because of "economic liberty and smaller government" that lead to a stronger military and a greater international presence.
For some reason the Republicans and Romney have this disdain and disconnect with the word "government." They are running for government offices, get paid by the taxpayers and yet say they want little to no government. The whole point of government is to provide a counterbalance to excessive greed in the business community. Yes, that's called "regulations" and they are necessary in this greedy generation.
There isn't a country's government in the world - or throughout history - that did not team up with business for mutual benefit. As long as the relationship is balanced it can help a nation. But if the relationship is like what we have happening here in America and throughout too much of Europe, then economies go downhill.
What Romney is proposing is not "small government" but rather a government too small to possess the muscle for quality oversight, a willingness to turn a blind eye to obvious law-breaking and new legislation to reduce the effect of and water down the existing regulations.
His definition of "self-reliance" is to blast unions out of existence and turn every state of the Union into a "right to work" state which effectively takes away all workers' rights. A "right to work" state favors employers and denies employees any fight back. Employees can be fired without any real cause, not even get paid above minimum wage even though the employer had previously paid it. It's a recipe for enduring poverty.
Romney's idea of self-reliance is to abandon the current struggling middle class to high unemployment figures, millions more home foreclosures and the resulting homelessness and poverty because millions of jobs were sent overseas by businessmen just like him. And, oh, yeah, Romney did it too when he took over companies, raided their pensions and then sent the companies into bankruptcies, firing thousands of workers each time.
What Romney is proposing is to preserve the status quo in America that both Presidents Bush and Obama have perpetuated: Take care of Big Business at the expense of Main Street. What neither political party seems to accept is that Main Street is angry. Main Street has a long memory. And Main Street just isn't going to take it any more.
If you want to vote for a Woman as President in 2012:
Fed up with both political parties and Big Money in politics? Vote the alternative as President.
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