Michael F

“From Etch-A-Sketch To Sketchy”

FromAlbum4

“I’m not acrook vulture capitalist.”


E.J. Dionne puts the sketchy in Mitt’s Etch-a-Sketch, whileKrugman’s “amazed” at Romney’s insistence that he was just a small time Mom & Pop LBO specialist (well, Pop in the sense of Papa Doc, or his Central American oligarch equivalents).

As for me, maybe this is aging myself, but Mitt’s performance kept reminding me off…former TV character and pitchman Joe Isuzu.

Your mileage may vary.

FromAlbum4

11 thoughts on ““From Etch-A-Sketch To Sketchy””

  1. Romney’s claim of the Olympics and Bain actually got me thinking in a way which is not complementary to Romney.
    Hosting the Olympics is a costly affair. Whether you break even or not (more often you loose a good bit of money) is heavily dependent in what you include in the accounting books. I seriously doubt Romney had the Olympics make money without any support from any government. From simple logistics of building arenas (including the govt action of the taking of property to build them, valuation of any seized property at below market, etc.), govt building of structures, to outright govt payments.
    I also wonder what actual costs of the Olympics don’t appear on Romney’s balance but were instead done by others (If the City built a new stadium with hopes of using it for their sports team, did Romney include that in his equation. And if the City didn’t get a sports team to play there and began a yearly loss on the value of the Stadium as well as loss of property tax for what was on the land originally, did Romney include that on his books?)
    At Bain, he was a gambler, but he was the worst sort that gambled with other people’s money. Additionally, it would be consistent with the business of venture capital, that one of the factors that would make a business a good target would be the presence of various means of federal support and / or tax advantages. In short, his millions were made by not only taking corporate welfare but actually targeting areas where they could get corporate welfare.
    And now I learn from your link that a lot of the venture came from less than savory, outside the USA sources.
    I wonder what Romney would say about someone receiving govt benefits who moves to another state which has higher support payments.

  4. My apologies, but I can’t edit above post.
    Above link is to an analysis by David Stockman – as in budget guy for Reagan. As in Republican.

  5. When lyin’ stealin’ and cheatin’ is a way of life it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Romney lifted his logo from a shoe company in Germany. Without permission, of course.

  7. Good catch on the logo. I would never have thought of it. Romney’s whole family creeps me out. It’s the whole “we’re better than you” attitude that taints all they do.

  8. I don’t think Mitt is finished. I think this is the most innesertitg primary I’ve ever seen and the most unpredictable. I think the Republicans are going to duke it out to the bitter end and I see Romney as the VP candidate if he doesn’t finish. I don’t think Huckabee has a chance because, although he won Iowa, he’s too extreme. I think the other state primaries are going to even that one out.I would have voted for him if he hadn’t been such an A-hole about our religion. I no longer like him at all.I don’t think Hillary has a chance even if by some miracle she should win the nomination.Because America is not that stupid. There is no doubt that Bill Clinton will be back in the white house and I just think at our core we are too practical and sensible to want that. It would be a train wreck.I like Obama. But I don’t trust my own judgement because I’m too easily charmed. And he is extremely charming and well spoken. I love the way he speaks.You guys, can you see Guiliani as the candidate, with Mitt as his VP against Obama and his VP candidate? That would be a horse race. That might be the first election in awhile that people aren’t voting for the worst of two evils, my previous comments to the contrary notwithstanding.I haven’t been this intrigued by an election since Carter ran against Ford and I was solidly in favor of Ford. I think Jimmy Carter was a very good man and honest, but I thought he would make a terrible president and I was right.Sorry, Dan, but not every Democrat is perfect.

  9. John,Chris Dodd moved his family and lived in Iowa for most of the last year. Neither he nor Biden could crroal enough money to get attention, partly due to the early start for this campaign. Clinton and Obama got money early, and that was the initial measure of the success of the candidates. If you recall, Ron Paul suddenly raised the most money of any candidate in a recent month (November, I believe), but it was far below what the front runners had been pulling in over the summer. The news reports regularly talked about who was leading in the money poll.As to my other comment, well, maybe it was a little over the top. But we have not had seriously considered black or female candidates in the past 40 years or so. Geraldine Ferraro was tagged as the VP candidate for Fritz Mondale, and I forget the name of the woman Senator from Maine(?) who actually ran for president back in 1968 or 1972. Apart from that, we have not seriously considered either a black or woman candidate in my memory of presidential races, which goes back to 1960 (I am not kidding, I was a precocious 8 year old!).The fact that we have to even talk about a candidate’s sex, race, or religion, indicates we still have some distance to go before we have real equality and diversity. Note that Harry Reid’s religion hardly ever comes up, versus Romney and Huckabee. I apologize if my comment came off as inflammatory, it was not intended to.

  10. Russ,Given that you raise the issue of our economy, I’m curuois what your opinion is of .To get a sense of his economic expertise, I highly recommend reading . s good as well.Ron Paul has long been a champion of fixing our fiscal disaster and would do an excellent job if placed in an executive position to do so. I fear that others, such as Romney and Giuliani, lack the basic understanding of how our economy really works, as Paul outlines in the articles I’ve cited. What are your thoughts?

  11. My thought is Who is Ron Paul? Ron Paul might be the best fit for President, but rileastically he’s not going to get the nomination because the actors are already on the stage and he’s not. At the moment even Romney, who is in the top three, is a longshot, based simply on the fact that his name recognition is so low.

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