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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Sunday 21 October 2012
“Coming just a bit more than three weeks before Election Day, it attempts to confirm Romney’s central selling point – that he can run the government better than Obama.”
Romney the Detail Man?
The so-called “mainstream media” (aka The New York Times) is constantly being assailed by Republicans and the right for their supposedly liberal slant. Yet another convenient right-wing lies.
Take, for example, Saturday’s above-the-fold NY Times story, entitled (in the print edition that arrived at my home this morning): “Romney Recalled as Leader Who Savors Details.”
What?
It’s mainly a puff piece, aglow with Romney’s supposed managerial prowess. Coming just a bit more than three weeks before Election Day, it attempts to confirm Romney’s central selling point – that he can run the government better than Obama.”
Nowhere does the Times bother to mention that Romney’s campaign has been devoid of any detail at all — details about his economic plan, his budget plan, his plan for what to replace Obama care with, his plan to replace Dodd-Frank, or even details about the taxes he’s paid.
When he was governor of Massachusetts, the citizens of the Commonwealth had no idea what he was doing (I can attest because I was there, and as much in the dark as most people). He kept the details of his governing to himself and his staff. And he spent most of his last two years in office laying the groundwork for his run for the presidency.
Romney has always savored details when it helps him make money. But when it comes to running or holding office he’s been a standout for avoiding all details and keeping the public in the dark.
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ABOUT Robert Reich
ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
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By Richard (RJ) Eskow
9 comments on "Romney the Detail Man?"
October 21, 2012 10:12pm
What really irritates me is that many of Romney's wealthy buddies can get away without paying taxes due to their armies of accountants who find every loophole that ever existed, yet instead of referring to them as part of the 47% who are "takers" that don't pay income tax (which they are by definition), he calls them "job creators" and expects us to give them a pass on passing on capital to others as is expected of everyone else.
October 21, 2012 3:08pm
Plutocrats, like all despots and totalitarian leaders, think their own worldview is absolutely correct and that they are absolutely deserving of all they have, no matter the harm to society they create. They're nothing more than privileged and spoiled little cry babies.
October 21, 2012 3:44pm
Side-stepped in all the brouhaha about competence to run the government is the central issue of values and philosophy. Let's say, for discussion, that Romney can run the government "better" (which I can't believe), WHO would benefit from this allegedly greater competence? WHO would Romney be so proficient FOR?
Does anyone really believe that this silver-spoon scion of a prominent family, with his private schooling and education at the most expensive university, with his country club membership and network of wealthy friends - a man who disparaged the seniors and combat soldiers with his dismissal of the "47%" who pay no income taxes - is going to be working on behalf of anyone but the money elite he is part of?
And these questons seem to elude those voters who think Romney will "do a better job." WHO would benefit? Since I was a kid in short pants, the Republican Party was known as the party of the Rich and Big Business. That commitment really hasn't changed, except that now it's even more extreme, but oh so well camouflaged that the unthinking can only rouse themselves from their civic stupor and vote for a guy like Romney because he's more photogenic, more positive - or perhaps even, more white - than the skinny big-eared guy in the White House.
I honestly feel that if the masses of working Americans would vote for the candidate of the party that has benefited the 99% the most for the past century, the Republican Party would be just a fringe cult of the Richie Rich's of America.
Yet the Republican Party, with its billionaire sponsors, has completely diverted working people by a smooth shell game of quasi-religious issues. They pick the wallets of the salaried people to pass the collective loot to the salivating 1%, and all they have to do to distract them is press the right emotional buttons by uttering the magic words of "abortion" or "gay marriage."
Never have I seen so many working people vote for the party and the issues that work against their own best interests, all down the line. It's almost incredible.
Yet here we have the electorate, according to the polls, split between Romney and Obama, or even favoring Mitt. And I am baffled, and wonder "What are these Romney supporters thinking? Or do they even think at all, relying entirely on gut feelings?"
In another mood, if you're voting from your head, and haven't seen the "Romney Style gangnam" video on You Tube, then Google it and get a good laugh, at least if you're not a prude.
October 21, 2012 6:38pm
Right. Most Romney supporters aren't thinking. And, "gut feelings"? If most people's gut feelings don't make them run far and fast from Romney, as they should, something is terribly wrong.
October 21, 2012 12:14pm
Romney's so called "businessman' is so much BS. His business was to fire people and move the firm to Communist China and make oodles of money. I am sure if you were to ask a died in the wool business man, that he would be able to teach this nitwit a thing or two about how and what a true productive business requires.
October 21, 2012 3:05pm
@dville
You are so right. What I think you're getting at is that "real business" owners, small business, etc., do not have the luxury of millions in capital to muck around with till one "get's it figured out." We have an idea, then we put it into real assets. For instance, one wishes to start a retail outlet. we don't call up our "advisers" for marketing ideas, nor do we call up our "handlers" to get the business actually built--the interior, decorations, etc. We do it because we don't have capital. We call friends and family, we learn how to handle a hammer and saw and framing concepts, and we frame up the interior ourselves, do all the purchasing, and when you get done, 5 years later--if you last that long--you have put in 12-18 hour days the entire time. And if you fail? well, you're screwed, blued, and tattooed. You have no "back up millions" to live off of. Now you're broke, 50, and living on credit cards.
No, these plutocrats are soft, whiny, privileged, snotty little parasites who think they are the gift of humanity to all people. They think they are completely right in their world view and that everyone owes them because they have made millions, even billions, playing a casino game called take from the poor and give to the rich. What? They make a bad decision and lose a few million jobs and a few million dollars? meh! Big deal, on to the next betting table. Fuck them.
You put any of them in a situation where they have to implement their ideas personally and you'll see just who shallow and week they really are. They can't even deal with real world, everyday problems like paying CCs, balancing check books, and dealing with stuff like "We never received your payment, etc" and "We can't find your rent a car yet, sorry." They literally have mental breakdowns when these everyday things happen to them.
I always thought, and correctly I think, that if GWB (Just an example of many) had grown up in the Bronx to a single prostitute mother, he may have been a good car salesman, but probably more like a skid-row drunk, rather than President.
October 21, 2012 10:48am
Now, I didn't read the "news item" in question, but as the devil's advocate, I must point out that opinion about the fine, detail-oriented job Mitt Romney allegedly did as governor of Massachussetts making the state safe for the health care industry just like President Obama's ACA did nationally is news, as much as opinion polls are news, isn't it? Incidentally, I'm quite confused as to why experience running a successful business means someone is automatically a good choice as a President, anyway? Can the Western memory be so short that we forget that high finance and bailing out unregulated financiers like Romney is what sank our world-wide economy in the first place?
October 21, 2012 10:08am
Mr. Reich, when you have a mo', a slight correction needs to be made. First paragraph, last sentence should end with "lie" not "lies".
Now, how did this end up as news on the front page of the NYT???? It's purely an opinion piece! Is there a way we can call out media when they do this sort of thing?
I'd really like to see media outlets sued when they run political ads with lies in them. That way, media is doing its job, and the ads would (hopefully) be truthful to begin with; also, the only place left to lie would be the internet, opinion pages, and debates themselves.
Richard A., this idea may be the only way the sheeple become people again.
October 21, 2012 9:07am
We Americans are a classic mushroom society We are fed bullshit and always kept in the dark When will we simply not re-elect anybody and clean house