Mitt Romney

Michelle Obama And Mitt Romney Give Commencement Addresses: The Massive Difference!

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May is the season for commencement addresses at colleges and universities, and famous people, often political types, are recruited as a symbol of stature for those colleges and universities.

Today, Michelle Obama, the First Lady, gave the commencement address at Virginia Tech, the university which suffered through the worst murder rampage in the history of higher education, five years ago, with 32 students and faculty murdered.

Now, five years later, Mrs. Obama visited, and applauded the students who came to Virginia Tech since the massacre, and told them to be proud of their university, and how the school should never forget what happened, but continue to promote higher education and advancement as the best way to commemorate the tragedy. Her presence was inspiring to all who attended, a positive step to overcome hate and violence.

Tomorrow, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, will deliver the commencement address at Liberty University in Virginia, the school founded by television evangelist Jerry Falwell, and now operated by his son, Jerry Falwell, Jr.

It would be great to say that Liberty University keeps the tradition of its name, and is an open minded, tolerant place, but it was not under Jerry Falwell, and is no more so under Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Instead, it promotes censorship, including the banning of a student Democratic Party organization on campus.

The school will not accept or keep students in residence who are declared homosexuals, and just as the father preached, the son and his school preaches that being gay is a guarantee of entrance into hell as a sinner.

The school also is vehemently anti abortion, and preaches strict sexual morality, and treats women as second class citizens, attacking, as Jerry Falwell did, the whole feminist movement, and the promotion of equal rights for women.

This is a propagandistic, narrow minded university, a disgrace to the concept of a liberal arts education, and instead promotes an intolerant view of Christianity, no change since the first Jerry Falwell riled many people with his prejudices, and hate filled sermons!

The question is WHY Mitt Romney would give ANY dignity to a university which is a mockery of the purpose of higher education!

Does he not realize that this bigoted university dislikes the Mormon beliefs that he so zealously advocates?

Does he not know that this university gets federal funding despite its violations of the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech and press, banning free discussion and debate?

What kind of message does Mitt Romney think he is sending? Can he not understand that his presence at this university, which can only add status and stature to this so called place of higher learning, makes his public image among independents, women, minorities, and intelligent young people, look all the worse?

What is it about Mitt Romney that he cannot understand that his actions and words do matter, and that he is sowing defeat by his refusal to abandon the hateful right wing wingnuts in his party?

Mitt Romney is an embarrassment to himself, to his party, to his nation, and to decent human behavior!

JP Morgan Chase Loss Of $2 Billion Demonstrates Need For MORE Regulation, More Dodd-Frank Legislation!

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One of the biggest banks, JP Morgan Chase, which happens to be, unfortunately, my bank by default, has engaged in a manipulation of their depositors and stockholders, which has caused a loss of $2 billion.

This just proves further the need for MORE regulation, not less, as Mitt Romney advocates, and his party endorses!

The Republicans want to destroy the Dodd-Frank legislation of 2010, designed to promote regulation, as a result of the abusive financial practices of the big banks and insurance companies on Wall Street, which led to the Great Recession, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s!

How can the American people not get the point that our big banks, “too big to fail”, are undermining any hope of economic revival, with their reckless and arrogant practices, all endorsed by the GOP, and the spoiled, arrogant, nasty, mean spirited, bullyish Mitt Romney, who does not give a damn about the harm to average middle class Americans, let alone the poor among us?

This is a major issue of the campaign of 2012, the abuse by the top one percent of the other 99 percent, who have had enough abuse, and are sick of being kicked around by Wall Street “bullies” backed by “Mr. Bully” himself, Mitt Romney!

Mitt Romney: A Bully, Nasty, Cruel! Character Issues Make Him Unacceptable To Be President!

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New information has emerged that Mitt Romney, when a teenager at a private boarding school, acted like a bully, and showed nastiness and cruelty toward two students who were perceived as gay, and also showed elderly abuse of a nearly blind teacher.

Of course, some will say: “Oh come on, have a sense of humor, please! Boys will be boys! You cannot hold teenage pranks and wildness against them later on in life!”

Sorry, but that does not ring for this author!

It is NEVER acceptable to be a bully, as we well realize today, when bullying for being gay, or short, or fat, or unattractive, or shy, or whatever, causes misery, depression, and often suicide of the victims! The scars from being bullied can last a lifetime and mar a person’s happiness!

Romney, along with others who feel guilty about what they did, held down a student and forcibly cut his hair, in one case. That is assault, and should have led to expulsion and legal action against the perpetrators, including Mitt Romney.

In another case, Romney made verbally abusive comments about a supposed gay student being a lady, and personal insults can really hurt, and should not be forgiven!

And in another case, Romney was involved in directing a nearly blind teacher into a door and wall, and having a hearty laugh after it, described as “giggly”! This is abuse of and lack of respect for a teacher, and being insensitive toward a disabled, elderly individual!

These are not laughing matters, and what is more infuriating is that Romney NEVER apologized for what he did, and just went about his life feeling no compassion or guilt, and first denied these events had ever happened. Only when a group of boys from that time all testified to the truth of these allegations did he say he did not remember, but wished now belatedly to apologize for his actions 48 years ago. Unfortunately, this is not enough!

This is an issue of character, as much as putting his dog on the top of his car for hours while traveling on vacation, leading to the dog having an “accident”, and telling us about this in a laughing matter, and saying the dog loved being on the car roof! How could he know that? Many people would call it dog cruelty!

This man is arrogant, feels privileged, has lied constantly on so many issues, and has demonstrated a lack of compassion and guilt for his actions. He is a terrible example for children with his bullying, nasty, cruel ways.

This is not just a childhood or teenage prank. It is a question of decency and character, and Mitt Romney fails the test of leadership.

This alone should be a reason to make sure we do not reward him with the office of the Presidency!

May 8th:67 Years Since V-E Day, And 128th Birthday Of A Courageous President, Harry Truman!

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Today marks two significant events in American history!

It is the 67th anniversary of V-E Day, the end of the war in Europe against Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1945.

It is also the 128th anniversary of the birth of President Harry Truman, who took over the Presidency suddenly, less than a month before the end of the war in Europe and his birthday, and always stood out, through crisis after crisis, as a man of courage, guts, decisiveness and principle, not much appreciated at the time, or in retirement, but now seen as usually the fifth best President, trailing only Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt.

These are important historical events to commemorate, as we face a campaign in which the nation is more divided than it has ever been since a time of great unity in 1945,

And we have a candidate for President, Barack Obama, who can be compared in courage and decisiveness in foreign policy to President Truman; and with Obama’s opponent, Mitt Romney, easy to compare in so many ways to Truman’s opponent in 1948, Thomas E. Dewey, who came across as plastic, not liked by conservatives in the Republican Party, lacking in dynamism and charisma, and lacking strong principles.

Hopefully, the Dewey defeat in 1948 will be matched by a Romney defeat in 2012!

Mitt Romney: The “Would Be President” Without “Cajones”!

Ronald 2 Comments

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney is proving yet again that he is a flawed candidate in the most basic ways.

Not only has he demonstrated that he has no principles, no beliefs, that he will not change if it is a way to gain votes!

Not only is he showing a lack of concern for the lives of average middle class and poor Americans, who are facing the absolutely worst times economically in the lifetime of ninety percent of our citizens, with only the oldest among us having any memory of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Not only is it clear that other Republicans look at Romney with a lack of respect and deference that one would expect for a Presidential nominee, as demonstrated by the shabby treatment of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum in their grudging, unemotional support of his candidacy.

But beyond all this, Mitt Romney has made it clear he lacks the most important trait of any leader who wishes to be our President: CAJONES!

This man worries about talk show hosts, “hoodlums” such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel, including right wing Christian hate monger Bryan Fischer, who describes himself as a “country yokel”, which is too nice a term for this BUM!

Fischer is bragging that he brought pressure on Romney to dump a gay foreign policy aide, and said that if Romney caves in to him, as he has, then how can one assume that Romney could stand up to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other nations that are potential threats to our nation?

As despicable as Fischer is, his gloating points out the problem and the truth!

Beyond what Fischer said, how can one believe that Romney could stand up to the Tea Party radicals in Congress, to the leadership of his own party, to the opposition party leaders, to “friendly” nations in Europe and Asia and Latin America, to the news media, to corporate leaders, and every other challenge that any President faces, and that Barack Obama can very easily testify to?

This man lacks “Cajones” in a very blunt way, and is unfit to be President of the United States of America!

The Difference Between John McCain And Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum And Other Republican Presidential Contenders Of 2012

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Mitt Romney demonstrated no guts or courage today when a woman in a crowd in Ohio said that Barack Obama has committed treason, and Romney said nothing.

Rick Santorum had a woman make derogatory comments about Barack Obama, claiming he had no right to be President, and Santorum said nothing

Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and other Republicans running for President in 2012 all had similar events occur, weirdly each time with women, and said nothing.

But in 2008, John McCain courageously spoke up when another woman made similar statements of disrespect for Barack Obama, told her she was wrong, and that Obama was a good man, just someone McCain disagreed with on issues and ideas.

John McCain was then applauded for what he said and did, and the opposite reaction of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and others to the same situation in 2012, particularly with Barack Obama being President now, not just a nominee, makes John McCain look even better!

But think about it: would Bob Dole, the 1996 Presidential nominee, have reacted the same way as McCain? Would Richard Lugar, likely to lose his Senate seat this year because of his decency and statesmanship, have reacted the same way as McCain? Would other “decent” mainstream Republicans of the past, such as Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Jack Kemp of New York, and even present Senators Olympia Snowe of Maine, Susan Collins of Maine, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts react the same way as McCain? The answer in all cases is YES!

This demonstrates how extremist the top leadership of the Republican Party in Congress and the Presidential race has become, and Mitt Romney needs to be roundly condemned for his refusal to react promptly to that woman today! It is clear that Mitt Romney does not have the character and decency to be our President!

Two Former Governors As Third Party Candidates: Could It Affect The Presidential Election Results Of 2012?

Ronald 4 Comments

Just a few days after an post about the likelihood that no third party would have a significant effect on the Presidential Election of 2012, suddenly the possibility arises that while no candidate is likely to win a state or gain a large percentage of votes, a 2000 Presidential Election scenario, where two candidates had small numbers of votes and percentage, and yet helped to determine the electoral vote in Florida, and therefore decide the winner of the Presidency, presents itself!

In 2000, Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party candidate and won 2.74 percent of the national vote, and Pat Buchanan ran as the Reform Party candidate and won 0.43 percent of the vote. But in Florida, about 97,000 people voted for Nader; and in Palm Beach Country, Florida, about 3,400 people incorrectly voted for Buchanan over Al Gore, because of confusion about filling out the infamous “butterfly” ballot, throwing the election in Florida to George W. Bush, and deciding the election of Bush over Al Gore.

Well, in theory, the same situation could arise in 2012, although highly unlikely that “lightning” would strike for a second time in 12 years.

Having said that, neither Ralph Nader nor Pat Buchanan were officeholders, while this election, two former governors are running, and cannot , therefore, be ignored!

The Libertarian Party has just nominated former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, and the Reform Party is likely to nominate former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer in August at their convention in Philadelphia.

Just being governors gives them a lot of status and clout, so we cannot assume that they will have no effect on the election results, just hope and pray that that is so!

The Formal Beginning Of Barack Obama’s Presidential Re-election Campaign

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Although the Presidential campaign has been on for months, today, six months and one day before the election date, Barack Obama is formally beginning he re-election campaign with speeches at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Most of the campaign appearances for both Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, will be centered in both Ohio and Virginia, as Ohio is a state that every Republican winner of the Presidency has won, and Virginia, typically a Republican state in the past half century, has become a real battleground with the growth of the Northern Virginia population near Washington, DC, making the state more likely to go Democratic, as it did in 2008.

As stated elsewhere in this blog, those two states, along with North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado, and Nevada will be the most crucial states, as the seven “swing” states most likely to go either way at this point, but with all seven having gone to Obama in 2008.

A Doomsday Scenario: A Possible 269-269 Electoral College Tie For The Presidency!

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All serious judgment about the Presidential Election of 2012 demonstrates that President Barack Obama should have no problem winning the Electoral College, since he won nine “swing states” in 2008, and is expected to win a majority, if not all, of those nine states again.

But a doomsday scenario has emerged, of what COULD happen if everything went awry!

And that doomsday scenario would lead to a 269-269 Electoral College tie, when 270 electoral votes are needed to win the election, no matter what the total popular vote is!

This 269 electoral vote total for Obama assumes he would win one of the five Nebraska electoral votes as he did in 2008,. when he won the Second Congressional District around Omaha. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that allow splitting of electoral votes, although such an idea has been broached before, but not adopted elsewhere.

Without Nebraska’a one electoral vote of five, Obama could lose to Mitt Romney 270-268!

This whole scenario is based on the idea that Obama loses Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and New Hampshire, all of which he won in 2008, while keeping Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.

This whole scenario is a long shot, but with a country so evenly divided in Congress, who can say that it is not a possibility, as terrible as it sounds!

And if a tie developed, the House of Representatives in January would pick the President, with each state having one vote, so which party controlled the new House and had at least 26 state delegations of their party would choose the President, while the Senate would pick the Vice President, with each state having one vote, but a 50-50 tie a potential in the Senate. Imagine if that happened, and if 25 states had a Republican majority in their House delegation, and the other 25 states had a Democratic majority in their House delegation, keeping in mind that seven states have only one House member–Vermont, Delaware, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming!

What a mess, but again the likelihood is quite low of such a scenario occurring!

Virginia And Florida: Two “Swing” States With Strong “Blue Areas”: Will It Be Enough For Barack Obama?

Ronald 1 Comment

Two “swing” states, crucial to the Presidential Election of 2012, are also Southern states, which have usually been fertile Republican territory, but not necessarily this time, as they were not in the Presidential Election of 2008.

Those two states are Virginia and Florida, where much of the battle for the Presidency will be centered over the next six months.

Virginia had voted Republican since after 1964, until Barack Obama won it in 2008. The key area that helped bring the Obama victory was northern Virginia, near Washington DC. This area has seen a continuous growth of federal government employees, many of them for the Pentagon in northern Virginia, but also other government workers who have settled in that area of the state. Additionally, many young people, African Americans, and Hispanics and Latinos have settled in Northern Virginia in recent years, and women have been alienated from the Republicans, due to the vaginal probe bill introduced by Governor Bob McDonnell, a leading candidate for the Vice Presidential nomination to run with Mitt Romney.

Virginia is really two states, and in that regard, not all that different than many other states, but the Northern Virginia vote was enough to give Obama the win in 2008, and right now, it seems likely that scenario will happen again in 2012.

Florida is another such case, with South Florida the “blue” area of the state, and helping Barack Obama to win the state in 2008, only the third time since the late 1960s to go to the Democrats (the other times being 1976 and 1996 when Southerners Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton carried the state).

The margin of victory in Florida was gained by South Florida support, just as was so in Northern Virginia, and the growth of non Hispanic Cubans, plus the northeastern and Jewish influence in South Florida, seem likely to give Barack Obama another opportunity to gain the state in a close vote finish in November!