Romney, Ricketts, And The Right

In what I can only attribute to excellent reporting by the NY Times, a plan to re litigate President Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, among other things, was thwarted when the Republican proposal was made public. The add was the brain child of Fred Davis a Los Angeles-based strategist who is known as "Hollywood Fred" among his friends and colleagues and has been credited with coming up with some of the most creative and downright bizarre political ads in recent campaigns. His latest offering was to be financed by Chicago Cubs owner, an T.D. Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts. ( Another Wall Street billionaire working behind the scenes for Romney, what a shocker.)

The proposal which Republicans, including Romney now repudiate, has been suggested as an after thought that had no real consideration. Really? Lets look at the facts. The proposal created by Davis called, The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama - The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good. was a 54 page after thought that included plans to spend millions on inflammatory TV ads using everything from Rev. Jeremiah Wright to images of the September 11th attacks to show the truth about Obama's alleged secret plan to destroy America.

In response to the proposal Obama campaign manager Jim Messina pointed out in the words of one of these guys, they want to "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do" in the last election. and the plan was to be financed by a single billionaire. Of course once the plan was uncovered, Romney, Ricketts, and Davis ran for cover. Dan Baker head of the super PAC Ending Spending Action Fund, which was going to promote the Ricketts proposal was indignant, “We run an organization based on fiscal responsibility. They know we asked for a document based on ending spending, fiscal responsibility and jobs in the economy. This is far afield from that.”  Baker said it was “deeply troubling and unfair” for their organization – and Ricketts, who funds the super PAC – to be associated with the proposal, since they had never approved anything in it, and didn’t commission such a proposal. “The world is full of bad ideas. This is one of them,” the super PAC president said. “This wasn’t a proposal we requested at all. We never funded it.”

The fact of the matter is, off the cuff proposals don't get 54 page color presentations created for the review of the man who is going to foot the bill. Clearly this is just another example of the depths to which Mitt Romney will stoop to become President. It is a classic behind the scenes snap shot that was stopped before it could be put in motion. This is the post "Citizens United" political system in which we operate. A system where a choice few can spend unlimited funds hidden in the undisclosed shadows behind the curtain of a super PAC.

So Romney and the rest of his cronies cry repudiation, like a murderer who gets caught and says he's sorry. Then in classic Romney form claims the President is running a campaign of "character assassination",this is a bigger disconnect than him claiming credit for the auto bailout! Are you kidding me? He became the Republican nominee during the primaries by carpet bombing his opponents into submission with over $30 million dollars of ads that (you guessed it!) were pure character assassination. It's no wonder this man won't talk to anybody but FOX, how many sides of his mouth can Romney talk out of? It's much more than what it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop I promise you. Romney is a shifty political chameleon funded by an American plutocracy designed to keep them rich, and rest of us content with the status quo. He is so out of touch with the majority of Americans, yet he stays competitive in the polls? Which only goes to show you that outright hate for one man, will make you vote for any boob just because he's the other choice available. It is madness on a national scale, and yet another indictment of who really runs America.

Who Is Mitt Romney?

That really has become the question hasn't it? He loves to define President Obama, but shies away from giving any kind of definitive definition to himself? So he opens himself up to being defined by the media, and the only time he directly tries to refute these definitions, he runs to FOX News where he can hit as many softballs as he wants. He is the product of sound bites from his wife, and the campaign shills he deploys to say what he can't. He has a long reputation for being on the politically expedient side of every issue, after all, he has been running for office since 1994. So he can't hide from 18 years of videotape that proves this to be true. So who is he really? For lack of a better image from his own campaign, the picture is not a pretty one.

He is a man of privilege born with a silver spoon in his mouth. A prep school prig who physically attacked those that he deemed as different. A corporate raider that put profits before people. He has morphed from a Governor who was a moderate, to a "severely conservative" presidential nominee. He has multiple homes, some with car elevators. He wrote an editorial called "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" then has the gall to take credit for the auto industry turnaround. He is a product of Wall Street that wants to repeal the Dodd-Frank banking regulations. This in light of the latest Wall Street nightmare where J.P. Morgan Chase lost 2 billion dollars and counting, on risky investments. Jaime Dimond the company CEO, was rewarded for the massive loss with a 23 million dollar pay package, and an overwhelming vote of confidence from the shareholders. These are Romney's people.

Are you an auto-worker? He owns several cars in fact, his wife drives a couple of Cadillacs. Do you like football or NASCAR? He knows a few team owners. Struggling to make ends meet? He's not, he has $250 million dollars. As a matter of fact, I bet he will wager $10 thousand dollars this is all true. The man has done everything short of lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar bill as he approaches the podium.

The question becomes, is this "class warfare" as Republicans would have us believe? or has Romney become a symbol of the 1% in this country. a club that gets smaller with each passing year. Can Mitt Romney really understand the day to day struggles of the average American? Do we want the next president to come from the very environment that almost destroyed our economy? We know this, he will throw his own health care measure under the bus to get elected president. He will keep his mouth shut when people say President Obama should be tried for treason, or a gay soldier asks if he will reaffirm "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", or when his own foreign policy consultant pick, an openly gay man, is opposed by the hard right. On all of these, crickets. A disingenuous laugh or smile, an awkward chuckle followed by "I don't recall that...but I'm sorry" If you don't remember what you did why would you apologize for it? Answer: Because he does remember what he did, and he can't afford to alienate anyone. He has proven time and again, he will do anything, say anything, support or reject anything, that he thinks will help make him President.

Such the cautious candidate, deploying his surrogates to do the heavy lifting while he tries to figure out what he should say next. A man who wants you to reject President Obama, while what we know of him is less than flattering. He can't even get enthusiastic endorsements from his own party? Last week in an e-mail put out at 11pm, former rival Rick Santorum finally gave his luke warm endorsement in the 13th paragraph of a 16 paragraph message. Yesterday, President George W. Bush endorsed Romney with just four words while the doors were closing on an elevator. He said "I'm for Mitt Romney" Strong praise for the man who wants to pick up where George W. Bush left off. Is this really who you want running the White House?  He is the same old song from the Right, less regulation, less education, low taxes for the rich, Big Oil subsides, limiting women's rights, gay rights, voting rights, anti-union, weaken environmental safeguards on what we eat, the water we drink , and the air we breath, and do it all with a straight face in the name of "Freedom". Sends a chill down your spine doesn't it.... and not a good one.