Where Are They Now?
President Obama’s Economics Dream Team
Berkeley, Chicago & Harvard
Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jessie Ventura
Who cares?
Governor Jenifer Granholm
Having inherited a sinking economy, the Berkeley and Harvard grad rode it down and then fled Michigan to Berkeley when her term expired – don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Governor Rob Blagojevich
Visiting his predecessor Governor George Ryan in the federal pen
Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York
Enjoying his new child with his faithful wife Umma
Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida
Planning a comeback
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
The future leader of France is no more
Jon Corzine
The epitome of hubris and the destroyer of wealth
Conrad Murray
Celebrities who violate the law may be acquitted, but not doctors who kill
celebrities
Greece
Paving the way for Italy, Portugal, and Spain, not to mention California
Vivian Schiller, Ron Schiller, & Ellen Weiss of NPR
Ask Juan Williams
Whitey Bulger
Please come to Boston
Kim Jong Il
He joins Francisco Franco in still being dead
Hosni Mubarak
Has he become a living mummy?
Muammar Gaddafi
Sleeping somewhere in the dessert
Osama bin Laden
He swims with the fishes
Christians in the Arab Mideast
The new Diaspora has begun
Occupy Wherever
Evicted by their political supporters
Joe Paterno
His name’s off a trophy and his wife is barred from the university swimming pool
Jim Tressel
Making replay calls for the Indianapolis Colts
The new LAUSD school menu
Food fight by the students
Notre Dame
Football
Rudy
Regis Philbun
Borders
Filene’s Basement
Solyndra
The light will shine on The White House
Saab
Twice sunk by GM
The old GM
Howrey LLP
Won’t be the last law firm to fail
Incandescent light bulb
Political burn out
Bank of America’s $5 debit fee
Verizon’s $2 payment fee
About as popular as the $2 bill
Coke’s new white cans
Didn’t Coke learn from the New Coke
Law & Order
Moved to London
Detroit 1-8-7
Who’s going to save Detroit?
L.A. Lakers
Meet Donald Sterling’s L. A. Clippers
Indianapolis Colts
See Jim Tressel, above
Mel Gibson
Met his Apocalypto
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Merry Christmas: Explain How the Republicans Blew the Payroll Tax Cut?
Here we are, a day after Christmas and a week after the House Republicans caved on the 60 day extension of the payroll tax cut, not to mention the unemployment compensation extension.
How did they blow it?
How did they hand a tax cut issue to the Democrats – a true political oxymoron?
How did the House GOP manage the seemingly impossible task of getting the Wall Street Journal, Senator John McCain and Charles Krauthammer to agree with the New York Times and the Democrats?
Why didn’t they just accept the fraudulent Senate 60 day extension, and send it back to the Senate with one simple amendment – change the 60 days to 365 days?
Why didn’t they relabel the 60 day cut a “tax holiday” instead of a tax cut, even a phantom tax cut?
Can a 2 month $160 tax cut sink the Republican agenda?
What’s going to happen in two months when the payroll tax cut reappears in the middle of the primary season?
Will they be rolled again on the lure of a middle class tax cut?
Has the House GOP forgotten that the Democrats still control the Senate and the President has the Bully Pulpit with a friendly media?
Have the Republicans forgotten one of the most significant political strengths of President Reagan – better to get 70% and call it a victory than fight for the last percent?
When will the Republicans learn when to fight and when to fold?
Will the Republicans figure out how to beat the Democrats’ mischief as President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid use every trick possible to retain the Presidency and Senate?
Is any of this going to matter on November 6, 2012?
How did they blow it?
How did they hand a tax cut issue to the Democrats – a true political oxymoron?
How did the House GOP manage the seemingly impossible task of getting the Wall Street Journal, Senator John McCain and Charles Krauthammer to agree with the New York Times and the Democrats?
Why didn’t they just accept the fraudulent Senate 60 day extension, and send it back to the Senate with one simple amendment – change the 60 days to 365 days?
Why didn’t they relabel the 60 day cut a “tax holiday” instead of a tax cut, even a phantom tax cut?
Can a 2 month $160 tax cut sink the Republican agenda?
What’s going to happen in two months when the payroll tax cut reappears in the middle of the primary season?
Will they be rolled again on the lure of a middle class tax cut?
Has the House GOP forgotten that the Democrats still control the Senate and the President has the Bully Pulpit with a friendly media?
Have the Republicans forgotten one of the most significant political strengths of President Reagan – better to get 70% and call it a victory than fight for the last percent?
When will the Republicans learn when to fight and when to fold?
Will the Republicans figure out how to beat the Democrats’ mischief as President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid use every trick possible to retain the Presidency and Senate?
Is any of this going to matter on November 6, 2012?
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas Trent Arsenault, The Giver of Life
We celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas – the miracle of Jesus, and indeed the miracle of life. To hold our newborn son or daughter in our arms is to witness the miracle of birth and life. As our children grow, we go to bed every night saying “Thank You God.”
Not all women though can share in the celebration of life. They may lack a fertile lover.
Trent Arsenault has been offering the gift of life for 5 years. The minister’s son had an epiphany in 2004 when he read about a neighborhood teacher who wanted a baby. He found his calling. He would donate his sperm to women who desire it. He would gift these women with life.
What greater gift can there be?
Trent is a free standing sperm bank in Fremont, California.
Trent does it for the love of life. He charges no money for his services and does not know the women in the Biblical way. He obviously does not claim a charitable contribution. All he asks in exchange for his semen is a contract in which he disclaims any paternal rights or responsibilities.
Even God’s angels today need the services of lawyers.
Trent offers his services on line and provides complete medical records along with his photo.
He has donated his sperm 348 times to 46 women. 14 babies have been born and 4 more are on the way. He has provided the gift of life to suffering women.
The Grinch, aka The Food and Drug Administration, is attempting to stop to his ministrations. The FDA, which does a poor job of safeguarding our medications or food, issued Trent a cease and desist order, threatening fines and imprisonment. It claims he violates their regulations, which require a blood test within 7 days preceding any donation of body tissue or fluids. They view sperm as a body fluid, even when no exchange of body fluids exists. The agency charged his “firm or establishment in Fremont recovers and distributes semen, and therefore is a manufacturer of human cells.”
The whole situation is illustrative of a bureaucracy gone wild, of a Nanny State that does not know when to quit.
Of course, artificial insemination through strange men poses risks to fetuses. Some men pass on genetic problems. STD’s can also reach the mother and child. So too though with sex through marriage and other relationships.
The FDA has no jurisdiction over normal heterosexual relations, which carry much
more risk than the non-carnal sperm donations. A man can father as many children as he wishes through as many women as he can entice into a sexual relationship. The late Wilt Chamberlain supposedly claimed he had bedded 20,000 women and 23 in 10 days. Magic Johnson, who admitted to being a “Party Animal,” was sued by one consort for giving her AIDS.
Every act of sexual intimacy between fertile couples carries risks to the baby and the couple itself. Whatever risks may exist with artificial insemination are probably less than with traditional sex, especially the classic one night stand. The breakup of a relationship may also cause great emotional trauma to at least one of the two.
At one level, the FDA’s action reeks of 1984. At a basic, constitutional level, the FDA’s stance also clashes with the fundamental precepts of Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut – those of a woman’s right to choose
Merry Christmas Trent.
Not all women though can share in the celebration of life. They may lack a fertile lover.
Trent Arsenault has been offering the gift of life for 5 years. The minister’s son had an epiphany in 2004 when he read about a neighborhood teacher who wanted a baby. He found his calling. He would donate his sperm to women who desire it. He would gift these women with life.
What greater gift can there be?
Trent is a free standing sperm bank in Fremont, California.
Trent does it for the love of life. He charges no money for his services and does not know the women in the Biblical way. He obviously does not claim a charitable contribution. All he asks in exchange for his semen is a contract in which he disclaims any paternal rights or responsibilities.
Even God’s angels today need the services of lawyers.
Trent offers his services on line and provides complete medical records along with his photo.
He has donated his sperm 348 times to 46 women. 14 babies have been born and 4 more are on the way. He has provided the gift of life to suffering women.
The Grinch, aka The Food and Drug Administration, is attempting to stop to his ministrations. The FDA, which does a poor job of safeguarding our medications or food, issued Trent a cease and desist order, threatening fines and imprisonment. It claims he violates their regulations, which require a blood test within 7 days preceding any donation of body tissue or fluids. They view sperm as a body fluid, even when no exchange of body fluids exists. The agency charged his “firm or establishment in Fremont recovers and distributes semen, and therefore is a manufacturer of human cells.”
The whole situation is illustrative of a bureaucracy gone wild, of a Nanny State that does not know when to quit.
Of course, artificial insemination through strange men poses risks to fetuses. Some men pass on genetic problems. STD’s can also reach the mother and child. So too though with sex through marriage and other relationships.
The FDA has no jurisdiction over normal heterosexual relations, which carry much
more risk than the non-carnal sperm donations. A man can father as many children as he wishes through as many women as he can entice into a sexual relationship. The late Wilt Chamberlain supposedly claimed he had bedded 20,000 women and 23 in 10 days. Magic Johnson, who admitted to being a “Party Animal,” was sued by one consort for giving her AIDS.
Every act of sexual intimacy between fertile couples carries risks to the baby and the couple itself. Whatever risks may exist with artificial insemination are probably less than with traditional sex, especially the classic one night stand. The breakup of a relationship may also cause great emotional trauma to at least one of the two.
At one level, the FDA’s action reeks of 1984. At a basic, constitutional level, the FDA’s stance also clashes with the fundamental precepts of Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut – those of a woman’s right to choose
Merry Christmas Trent.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Is Jon Corzine That Stupid?
Vice President Joe Biden said Jon Corzine was the person they called between the November 2008 election and inauguration day. They wanted his advice on the economy. He was the most brilliant person they knew on the economy. Corzine advised the Stimulus Package.
We know how that worked out.
Strike One!
Jon Corzine must have been brilliant. The tenant farmer’s son with an MBA from Chicago rose to become Chairman of Goldman Sachs at age 44. The wunderkind is a true genius.
So why last week did he not plead the 5th Amendment before Congress, but even worst, ignorance? He had no answer for how $1.2 billion in client funds went missing shortly before his company, MF Global, entered bankruptcy: “I simply do not know where the money is.”
Neither did the CEO and CFO he appointed at MF. Their defense is one of abject ignorance. The reality is one of gross mismanagement.
$1.2 billion is not petty cash, even for Goldman Sachs. How could MF’s senior management not know where it is? The farmers, grain elevators, and others who invested the $1.2 billion only know where it is not. The man who ran the company claims not only not to know where it is, but also that he never authorized an illegal transaction.
How can the brilliant head of Goldman Sachs be so ignorant and incompetent?
Of course, Corzine’s record is not that brilliant.
He was Chairman of Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1999, when he was ousted from the firm.
Strike Two!
His consolation prize was $400 million in GS stock.
He spent $60 million of it in 2000 securing a Senate seat in New Jersey. The seemingly arch-capitalist discovered his inner self of a clueless progressive. His voting record was to the left of Senator John Kerry.
His 2003 divorce cost him half of his fortune – the price to pay for openly cavorting with a mistress. The consolation prize, the girlfriend, did not work out. He then spent several million cutting his ties with her, a union official.
Strikes 3 and 4!
Don’t you only get three strikes in baseball?
He spent an additional $40 million in 2005 winning the New Jersey Governorship.
He then presided over 4 years of mismanagement, incompetence, infidelity,
arrogance, and corruption, while taxes, especially property taxes, keep rising. He also raised the sales tax to 7%.
The voters toss him from office; a progressive Democrat in one of the bluest of blue states, is defeated for reelection.
Strike 5! He’s on borrowed time, but doesn’t realize it. Hubris pride.
A new consolation prize awaited. An old friend from Goldman Sachs, J. Christopher Flowers, offered him MF in March 2010.
He assumed control, and within 20 months drove MF into bankruptcy. It had a debt/capital ratio of 40:1. This leverage exceeded even those of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers when they folded.
Strike 6!
He bet $6.3 billion in the debt of five European countries: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. At least he avoided Greece. He was warned against it, but felt the rewards were great, while the risk low. Leverage; he was betting with other investor’s money. The firm had assets of $39.7 billion and liabilities of $41 billion when it folded. The securities firm was out of cash. He learnt nothing from the 2010 Crash. A fool doesn’t learn.
He’s not so smart after all.
By the time he’s finished with litigation, settlements, and attorneys fees, he may be a pauper.
He never learnt to cut his losses.
It’s not easy to blow $400 million.
Jon Corzine is a stupid fool.
We know how that worked out.
Strike One!
Jon Corzine must have been brilliant. The tenant farmer’s son with an MBA from Chicago rose to become Chairman of Goldman Sachs at age 44. The wunderkind is a true genius.
So why last week did he not plead the 5th Amendment before Congress, but even worst, ignorance? He had no answer for how $1.2 billion in client funds went missing shortly before his company, MF Global, entered bankruptcy: “I simply do not know where the money is.”
Neither did the CEO and CFO he appointed at MF. Their defense is one of abject ignorance. The reality is one of gross mismanagement.
$1.2 billion is not petty cash, even for Goldman Sachs. How could MF’s senior management not know where it is? The farmers, grain elevators, and others who invested the $1.2 billion only know where it is not. The man who ran the company claims not only not to know where it is, but also that he never authorized an illegal transaction.
How can the brilliant head of Goldman Sachs be so ignorant and incompetent?
Of course, Corzine’s record is not that brilliant.
He was Chairman of Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1999, when he was ousted from the firm.
Strike Two!
His consolation prize was $400 million in GS stock.
He spent $60 million of it in 2000 securing a Senate seat in New Jersey. The seemingly arch-capitalist discovered his inner self of a clueless progressive. His voting record was to the left of Senator John Kerry.
His 2003 divorce cost him half of his fortune – the price to pay for openly cavorting with a mistress. The consolation prize, the girlfriend, did not work out. He then spent several million cutting his ties with her, a union official.
Strikes 3 and 4!
Don’t you only get three strikes in baseball?
He spent an additional $40 million in 2005 winning the New Jersey Governorship.
He then presided over 4 years of mismanagement, incompetence, infidelity,
arrogance, and corruption, while taxes, especially property taxes, keep rising. He also raised the sales tax to 7%.
The voters toss him from office; a progressive Democrat in one of the bluest of blue states, is defeated for reelection.
Strike 5! He’s on borrowed time, but doesn’t realize it. Hubris pride.
A new consolation prize awaited. An old friend from Goldman Sachs, J. Christopher Flowers, offered him MF in March 2010.
He assumed control, and within 20 months drove MF into bankruptcy. It had a debt/capital ratio of 40:1. This leverage exceeded even those of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers when they folded.
Strike 6!
He bet $6.3 billion in the debt of five European countries: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. At least he avoided Greece. He was warned against it, but felt the rewards were great, while the risk low. Leverage; he was betting with other investor’s money. The firm had assets of $39.7 billion and liabilities of $41 billion when it folded. The securities firm was out of cash. He learnt nothing from the 2010 Crash. A fool doesn’t learn.
He’s not so smart after all.
By the time he’s finished with litigation, settlements, and attorneys fees, he may be a pauper.
He never learnt to cut his losses.
It’s not easy to blow $400 million.
Jon Corzine is a stupid fool.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
A Salute to Myron Miller - A Great High School Coach
We glorify professional and college coaches. Let’s start with Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, and Clark Shaughnessy. Names like George “Papa Bear” Halas, Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, and Bill Walsh ring through the NFL eons. College greats include Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Paul “Bear” Bryant, John McKay, Woody Hayes, Bud Wilkinson, Darrell Royal, Eddie Robinson, and Bobby Bowden. College stadiums, such as Tennessee’s Neyland stadium, are named for coaching greats.
But what about high school coaches? For example, who is the coach of Concord De la Salle? What about Massillon, Valdosta, or Long Beach Poly?
Myron Miller, currently at Tustin High, is one of the great, unsung high school coaches. The Tustin Tillers defeated El Toro of Lake Forest at Angel Stadium last Saturday, 35-28, to win their first California Interscholastic Federation Title (Southern California) since 1948. Tustin has been in the finals 3 of the past 4 years.
The victory was typical Miller power football. Tustin went five for five on 4th down, including twice in the last 5 minutes, even when deep within their own territory. His view is simple – if they can’t get 2 yards on 4th and 2, then they don’t deserve to win.
Myron Miller has been coaching for 42 years, 17 at Tustin. The Tillers have been league champions 9 times in these 17 years, and also in the CIF semi-finals 9 times.
What’s amazing is how Myron Miller does it. Last Saturday’s game was typical – 8 yards passing and 334 yards running. Myron is Old School, really old school. Forget about anything as modern as the T Formation, much less the Wishbone, Pro Set, Power I, or Spread. I screamed out to my wife in 1997 when we went to a Tillers game: “That’s the double wing!’
He plays the double wing, which is so ancient that teams do not know how to defend it. It’s a power running offense that eats up the clock. His style is vintage Lombardi. His teams depend upon conditioning and execution to win.
His players are in excellent condition; he believes in a rigorous weight lifting regime. His exercise regime is so tough that when games begin in early September, he has less than 30 players on the team, often less than 2 dozen. Many players have to play both ways.
The great championship game in 1997 featured the Tillers, behind running back DeShaun Foster against Carson Palmer’s Santa Margarita, which seemingly had more coaches than Tustin had players. Foster ran for 378 yards and 6 touchdowns while Carson passed for 413 yards. Santa Margarita prevailed 55-42. Carson Palmer won the Heisman at USC and is still in the pros.
Many of Miller’s graduates have played at higher levels. Six were in the NFL in 2008: Sam Baker with the Atlanta Falcons, Beau Bell with Cleveland, Chris Chester with Baltimore, DeShaun Foster with the 49ers, Matt McCoy at Tampa Bay, and Frostee Rucker with Cincinnati. Another running back, Anthony Wilkerson, currently plays for Stanford.
Here’s to Myron Miller – a champion
But what about high school coaches? For example, who is the coach of Concord De la Salle? What about Massillon, Valdosta, or Long Beach Poly?
Myron Miller, currently at Tustin High, is one of the great, unsung high school coaches. The Tustin Tillers defeated El Toro of Lake Forest at Angel Stadium last Saturday, 35-28, to win their first California Interscholastic Federation Title (Southern California) since 1948. Tustin has been in the finals 3 of the past 4 years.
The victory was typical Miller power football. Tustin went five for five on 4th down, including twice in the last 5 minutes, even when deep within their own territory. His view is simple – if they can’t get 2 yards on 4th and 2, then they don’t deserve to win.
Myron Miller has been coaching for 42 years, 17 at Tustin. The Tillers have been league champions 9 times in these 17 years, and also in the CIF semi-finals 9 times.
What’s amazing is how Myron Miller does it. Last Saturday’s game was typical – 8 yards passing and 334 yards running. Myron is Old School, really old school. Forget about anything as modern as the T Formation, much less the Wishbone, Pro Set, Power I, or Spread. I screamed out to my wife in 1997 when we went to a Tillers game: “That’s the double wing!’
He plays the double wing, which is so ancient that teams do not know how to defend it. It’s a power running offense that eats up the clock. His style is vintage Lombardi. His teams depend upon conditioning and execution to win.
His players are in excellent condition; he believes in a rigorous weight lifting regime. His exercise regime is so tough that when games begin in early September, he has less than 30 players on the team, often less than 2 dozen. Many players have to play both ways.
The great championship game in 1997 featured the Tillers, behind running back DeShaun Foster against Carson Palmer’s Santa Margarita, which seemingly had more coaches than Tustin had players. Foster ran for 378 yards and 6 touchdowns while Carson passed for 413 yards. Santa Margarita prevailed 55-42. Carson Palmer won the Heisman at USC and is still in the pros.
Many of Miller’s graduates have played at higher levels. Six were in the NFL in 2008: Sam Baker with the Atlanta Falcons, Beau Bell with Cleveland, Chris Chester with Baltimore, DeShaun Foster with the 49ers, Matt McCoy at Tampa Bay, and Frostee Rucker with Cincinnati. Another running back, Anthony Wilkerson, currently plays for Stanford.
Here’s to Myron Miller – a champion
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The October 2012 Ad Against Governor Perry in the General Election
The October 2012 Ad Against Governor Romney – Should He Win the Republican Nomination
Governor Romney has run a disciplined, focused campaign. Stay apart from the circular firing squad of the other Republican candidates. Stay alive in Iowa, win New Hampshire, survive South Carolina, and let his well organized, well financed campaign survive the primaries as his opponents fall one by one by the wayside. Polls show he has the best chance against president Obama in November.
And yet, the businessman has fallen behind Congressman Newt Gingrich, a career politician, when the public consistently shows disdain for politician. The non-politician politician should be cleaning up, not watching the possible nomination slip – sliding away.
He made a mistake in the recent Republican debate. The Governor misspoke when he offered to bet Governor Rick Perry $10,000. Born rich, the product of America’s elite boarding schools and colleges, he appeared out of touch with the American people. The patrician FDR never would have made this mistake. The predictable ads have appeared.
But these are but a foreshadow of the October Ad.
The Ad does not bring up the $10,000 bet. Nor will it morph RomenyCare into ObamaCare to discourage Republicans and Independents from voting for the Governor. No, it directly attacks his job-creating business background.
The non-politician governor would have been a career politician if he had won the 1994 Senatorial contest in Massachusetts against the incumbent, Senator Ted Kennedy. The young, dynamic business executive was a refreshing change from the Senator. The Massachusetts public was receptive to dumping the Senator. A founder of Staples, the creator of jobs was gaining momentum.
Then came the Ad.
Mitt Romney was a founder of Bain Capital, which invested in other companies, often reorganizing them, then flipping them for a profit. One example is the acquisition of Dade International, a medical company, which Bain turned around, and then cashed out for $242 million. Dade later went bankrupt.
The one at issue in the Ad was Ampad. Bain acquired it in 1992 for $5 million. It then merged competitors into Ampad, cutting costs by downsizing the workforce. Reorganization of a struggling company entails cutting plants and facilities, product lines, and laying off employees, including entire factories. The alternative to a reorganization could be liquidation.
One of the laid off employees was featured in the ad, explaining how he and his co-workers struggled after losing their jobs while Bain made millions. The violins are playing for the unemployed. In short, Romney prospered by firing productive workers. As one terminated employee said “If he’s created jobs, I wish he could create some here, you know, instead of taking them away.”
Brutally effective ad! The candidate had no response. End of campaign. Kennedy 58%, Romney 41%. The Ampad ad had the same effect on Mitt Romney’s campaign as the Willie Horton ad against Governor Dukakis.
That’s the ad that will run in October, timed for the maximum effect on the November election.
Bain Capital apparently made $100 million off of Ampad, which entered bankruptcy in 2000.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times have all in the past two weeks discussed the record of Bain Capital. Newt Gingrich referred to it on Monday in appearance in New Hampshire.
The ex-Governor demanded the ex-Speaker give back the $1.8 million in consulting fees he received from Freddie Mac. Congressman Gingrich responded the Governor “should give back all the money he earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain.”
The Massachusetts voters may be familiar with the Ad, but it will be a novelty to the American voter.
Governor Romney has run a disciplined, focused campaign. Stay apart from the circular firing squad of the other Republican candidates. Stay alive in Iowa, win New Hampshire, survive South Carolina, and let his well organized, well financed campaign survive the primaries as his opponents fall one by one by the wayside. Polls show he has the best chance against president Obama in November.
And yet, the businessman has fallen behind Congressman Newt Gingrich, a career politician, when the public consistently shows disdain for politician. The non-politician politician should be cleaning up, not watching the possible nomination slip – sliding away.
He made a mistake in the recent Republican debate. The Governor misspoke when he offered to bet Governor Rick Perry $10,000. Born rich, the product of America’s elite boarding schools and colleges, he appeared out of touch with the American people. The patrician FDR never would have made this mistake. The predictable ads have appeared.
But these are but a foreshadow of the October Ad.
The Ad does not bring up the $10,000 bet. Nor will it morph RomenyCare into ObamaCare to discourage Republicans and Independents from voting for the Governor. No, it directly attacks his job-creating business background.
The non-politician governor would have been a career politician if he had won the 1994 Senatorial contest in Massachusetts against the incumbent, Senator Ted Kennedy. The young, dynamic business executive was a refreshing change from the Senator. The Massachusetts public was receptive to dumping the Senator. A founder of Staples, the creator of jobs was gaining momentum.
Then came the Ad.
Mitt Romney was a founder of Bain Capital, which invested in other companies, often reorganizing them, then flipping them for a profit. One example is the acquisition of Dade International, a medical company, which Bain turned around, and then cashed out for $242 million. Dade later went bankrupt.
The one at issue in the Ad was Ampad. Bain acquired it in 1992 for $5 million. It then merged competitors into Ampad, cutting costs by downsizing the workforce. Reorganization of a struggling company entails cutting plants and facilities, product lines, and laying off employees, including entire factories. The alternative to a reorganization could be liquidation.
One of the laid off employees was featured in the ad, explaining how he and his co-workers struggled after losing their jobs while Bain made millions. The violins are playing for the unemployed. In short, Romney prospered by firing productive workers. As one terminated employee said “If he’s created jobs, I wish he could create some here, you know, instead of taking them away.”
Brutally effective ad! The candidate had no response. End of campaign. Kennedy 58%, Romney 41%. The Ampad ad had the same effect on Mitt Romney’s campaign as the Willie Horton ad against Governor Dukakis.
That’s the ad that will run in October, timed for the maximum effect on the November election.
Bain Capital apparently made $100 million off of Ampad, which entered bankruptcy in 2000.
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times have all in the past two weeks discussed the record of Bain Capital. Newt Gingrich referred to it on Monday in appearance in New Hampshire.
The ex-Governor demanded the ex-Speaker give back the $1.8 million in consulting fees he received from Freddie Mac. Congressman Gingrich responded the Governor “should give back all the money he earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain.”
The Massachusetts voters may be familiar with the Ad, but it will be a novelty to the American voter.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Questions, Questions, Questiona About Newt
Has Newt Gingrich peaked too soon, or just in time?
Can Newt win Iowa without a strong ground game in effect?
Does Newt carry too much Baggage?
Will Newt’s infidelity trump Mitt’s Mormonism in the South on Super Tuesday?
Can he survive the statements of former staffers and colleagues?
What are his former campaign staffers thinking today?
What will the intensive media fly-specking, the Sarah Palin treatment, uncover?
Will Newt be Cained?
Can a lobbyist become President?
Will Congressman Gingrich become the first Republican to walk the plank on Freddie Mac?
What weight is given to a Newt flip flop versus a Mitt flip flop?
Is a career politician electable as President?
How many of his nine political lives does he have left?
Is Survivor his favorite reality show?
Will the candidate be able to control his mouth throughout the primary season and general election?
Will his new found support for immigration reform hurt him in the primaries, but help in the general election?
Is Congressman Gingrich the second coming of Lincoln, Churchill, Reagan, and Thatcher combined?
Will his wife’s spending habits become an issue?
Is Newt too short to be elected?
Is he too paunchy to be elected?
Is the former professor too cerebral for the public?
If Congressman Gingrich fails, who will be the next anti-Mitt?
Did Governor Romney play it too safe?
Can Newt win Iowa without a strong ground game in effect?
Does Newt carry too much Baggage?
Will Newt’s infidelity trump Mitt’s Mormonism in the South on Super Tuesday?
Can he survive the statements of former staffers and colleagues?
What are his former campaign staffers thinking today?
What will the intensive media fly-specking, the Sarah Palin treatment, uncover?
Will Newt be Cained?
Can a lobbyist become President?
Will Congressman Gingrich become the first Republican to walk the plank on Freddie Mac?
What weight is given to a Newt flip flop versus a Mitt flip flop?
Is a career politician electable as President?
How many of his nine political lives does he have left?
Is Survivor his favorite reality show?
Will the candidate be able to control his mouth throughout the primary season and general election?
Will his new found support for immigration reform hurt him in the primaries, but help in the general election?
Is Congressman Gingrich the second coming of Lincoln, Churchill, Reagan, and Thatcher combined?
Will his wife’s spending habits become an issue?
Is Newt too short to be elected?
Is he too paunchy to be elected?
Is the former professor too cerebral for the public?
If Congressman Gingrich fails, who will be the next anti-Mitt?
Did Governor Romney play it too safe?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Demonization of Herman Cain
Herman Cain has suspended his quixotic campaign for President. He soared and fell like a meteor.
How sad!
The articulate, accomplished plain-spoken Cain seemed the anti-Romney the Republican conservatives have desperately been seeking. He knew jobs came from private employers. More significantly, he was the first Republican since Sarah Palin who connected directly with the voters. He was not a career politician. Even Governor Romney has been running for office for 15 years. He spoke simply, directly and genuinely to the people.
No programmable, robotic talking points – just real ideas. His ideas, like Ronald Reagan’s seemed to make sense, even though heavily criticized by the experts.
Common sense.
A positive campaign – not a negative campaign.
A true conservative – not a faux conservative.
Indeed, could Cain be the second coming of Reagan?
A fresh breeze
Herman Cain would represent the Party of Lincoln.
The Republican Party that freed the slaves.
Even if he entered the election for ulterior or unknown reasons, Cain soared in the polls. Cadres of Republican activists flocked to him. 9-9-9. Cain was The Man.
Authentic, but flawed, as we all are.
And then came the women with accusations of sexual harassment and long affairs. I don’t know the truth of the charges, any more than Anita Hill and Justice Thomas, but we must take sexual harassment claims seriously.
And yet, some of the “charges” seemed more like a man hitting on a woman than sexual harassment.
Cain offered to take a polygraph. Clinton never did.
The media went ballistic. Gloria Allred appeared with her client, Sharon Bialek, the first accuser, eventhough the statute of limitations had long run.
Where was Gloria with Kathleen Willey’s accusations against Governor Bill Clinton?
Where was the media with the candidate who had a campaign squad created just to handle his “Bimbo Eruptions?”
Where was Gloria Allred with Paula Jones?
Where were the investigative reporters with Jennifer Flowers?
Where was the media harassing President Clinton with his obstruction of justice, settlements and surrender of his law license in Arkansas?
Have you noticed that one by one, the mainstream media has destroyed each major opponent to Governor Romney?
Have you noticed the fly-specking and vitriolic treatment that conservative woman Republicans, like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, and conservative Republicans such as Herman Cain, receive without any media outrage by the double standard?
How about the candidate who campaigned in all 57 states with a couple left to go?
Where was the media on that gaffe?
Of course, Herman Cain probably was probably not going to win the nomination. He had little fund raising and no ground game, especially critical in Iowa.
We are electing the President of the United States, not a candidate for sainthood.
The economy is in the tank, the dilettante President has been a disaster spending his time golfing, traveling, and fundraising, and basing his campaign on demagoguery.
Social issues are important, but this election should be based on economic issues.
Herman Cain’s out, at least for the Presidential nomination.
How sad!
The articulate, accomplished plain-spoken Cain seemed the anti-Romney the Republican conservatives have desperately been seeking. He knew jobs came from private employers. More significantly, he was the first Republican since Sarah Palin who connected directly with the voters. He was not a career politician. Even Governor Romney has been running for office for 15 years. He spoke simply, directly and genuinely to the people.
No programmable, robotic talking points – just real ideas. His ideas, like Ronald Reagan’s seemed to make sense, even though heavily criticized by the experts.
Common sense.
A positive campaign – not a negative campaign.
A true conservative – not a faux conservative.
Indeed, could Cain be the second coming of Reagan?
A fresh breeze
Herman Cain would represent the Party of Lincoln.
The Republican Party that freed the slaves.
Even if he entered the election for ulterior or unknown reasons, Cain soared in the polls. Cadres of Republican activists flocked to him. 9-9-9. Cain was The Man.
Authentic, but flawed, as we all are.
And then came the women with accusations of sexual harassment and long affairs. I don’t know the truth of the charges, any more than Anita Hill and Justice Thomas, but we must take sexual harassment claims seriously.
And yet, some of the “charges” seemed more like a man hitting on a woman than sexual harassment.
Cain offered to take a polygraph. Clinton never did.
The media went ballistic. Gloria Allred appeared with her client, Sharon Bialek, the first accuser, eventhough the statute of limitations had long run.
Where was Gloria with Kathleen Willey’s accusations against Governor Bill Clinton?
Where was the media with the candidate who had a campaign squad created just to handle his “Bimbo Eruptions?”
Where was Gloria Allred with Paula Jones?
Where were the investigative reporters with Jennifer Flowers?
Where was the media harassing President Clinton with his obstruction of justice, settlements and surrender of his law license in Arkansas?
Have you noticed that one by one, the mainstream media has destroyed each major opponent to Governor Romney?
Have you noticed the fly-specking and vitriolic treatment that conservative woman Republicans, like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, and conservative Republicans such as Herman Cain, receive without any media outrage by the double standard?
How about the candidate who campaigned in all 57 states with a couple left to go?
Where was the media on that gaffe?
Of course, Herman Cain probably was probably not going to win the nomination. He had little fund raising and no ground game, especially critical in Iowa.
We are electing the President of the United States, not a candidate for sainthood.
The economy is in the tank, the dilettante President has been a disaster spending his time golfing, traveling, and fundraising, and basing his campaign on demagoguery.
Social issues are important, but this election should be based on economic issues.
Herman Cain’s out, at least for the Presidential nomination.
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