Reassuring Romney
Along with perhaps 500 other New York Republicans, I squeezed into an Upper East Side catering hall this morning to hear Mitt Romney’s campaign pitch. More important than the words (which we have heard before and we will hear innumerable times again) is the music. More than Barack Obama, Romney stumbles a bit verbally, uses an infelicitous term or a clumsy construction. This occurs more frequently when he speaks about his love for and belief in the United States of America, especially at the conclusion of his pitch. This is the hardest sort of speech pattern to fake, because it reflects a speaker who is actually thinking about what he says as he is saying it, and whose emotions impinge on his delivery.
Romney is not a Great Communicator — he evokes Ronald Reagan less than Jimmy Stewart — but he is utterly and unmistakably sincere. His belief in the recuperative powers of the United States of America, of individual achievement and national greatness, is so passionate that he finds it hard to find words powerful enough to convey it. That’s what makes him so much more persuasive in person than in the cold medium of television.
People don’t buy a product because they believe in the product, but because the salesman believes in the product, an old marketing maxim goes. Americans are having trouble believing in the United States, after the Bush administration fell asleep at the switch and allowed the housing bubble to become a financial crisis, and after Obama’s hope and change turned into “Hope you’ve got some spare change.” As Romney pointed out this morning, small business start-ups are at a 30-year low. Most small business fail, he observed, but the successful start-ups account for most new jobs. Americans, he averred, want to take risks, want to innovate, want to get ahead. He mentioned an upholstering company in Ohio, a furniture rental agency turned manufacturer in Las Vegas, and the rags-to-riches story of North Dakota oil development.
If Americans are having a hard time believing in themselves, they know that Mitt Romney believes in them — and it is an authentic, deeply held, lifelong belief. He believes in them concretely, in their businesses and schools and churches, not in the abstract. And that’s exactly what this country needs: a president who can sell the idea of America back to its original owners, the American people. A slicker candidate would get less resonance from a jaded public. Obama will hide behind the teleprompter and come across coached, rehearsed, and canned; put him in front of an open mike and the risk is that real Obama (“You didn’t build that”) will come out, and it isn’t a pretty sight. Romney knows there is a gap between the founder of Bain Capital and ordinary Americans, but he is struggling to reach across it, because he really believes in ordinary Americans.
A lot of criticism has come the way of Romney’s handlers, but they seem to be doing just the right thing, that is, letting Romney be Romney. The rough edges are an advantage, not a liability. They convey the sense that Romney reaches out to his listeners, and is speaking with them, not at them. He comes across as a man who is not full of himself, but full of his audience.
Many of my conservative friends viewed Romney as a lesser evil and bemoaned the inability of the Republican Party to find a Gringrich/Santorum/Bachmann sort of standard bearer. But Romney well may be what the country needs right now. We are a country (as the former Massachusetts governor noted this morning) whose students rank in the bottom quartile of math and science achievement internationally; half of our babies born to women between 20 and 30 have unmarried parents; we have a hangover from the collapse of the Internet bubble and the housing market and have become more risk-averse. We could use a president who will help us to believe in ourselves, because he believes in us. And Romney suits the bill, better than any of us predicted.
Obama has taught the public that the government won’t fix the economy. The alternative is for the people to fix the economy. This election comes down to whether people will vote to lock in dependency — with transfer payments running to a fifth of all personal income, dependency has a bigger constituency than ever it did in the past — or for a chance to work their way out of the hole. Confidence is contagious, and Romney’s message, in style as much as substance, will tilt the balance towards the latter, better alternative.
(Also read “At Least Romney Won’t Peak Too Soon” at the Tatler.)
“The alternative is for the people to fix the economy.” That’s it. I have been saying to my kith and kin for years that the candidate who stands up and says, “I don’t know how to ‘fix’ America, but you do. 330 million people fixing each their own little piece. Big ideas, little ideas, American ideas. That is the way to ‘fix’ things. My (the candidates) job would be to get as much of this bloated government out of your way, give you your country back, and watch you show the world how its done.”
ta
I think I’ve figured out why Willard is doing so badly against Obama.
Obama is sleek, cool, the guy that everybody wanted to get to know and hang out with.
Willard comes across as a rich dork who bullies the gay guy, was pledge chairman for the DKEs, bought your company and laid you off with no severance and then your wife dies of cancer because your family is no longer covered with health insurance, and on top of all that plays dressage on the side!
To add to all that, he may be about to put Eddie Munster on the ticket.
O.M.G. That there is comedy gold, that is.
Willard is easy to mock and ridicule. Obama not so much.
People vote on optics as much or more than cold data and facts.
So Willard struggles. I’m happy about that, of course.
This ones gonna hurt …
Most people, even in High School, did not want to hang around with the “cool” kids, only the insecure ones. And after High School, only the most immature even thought about those things any longer. Now, I finally see Obama’s draw – he appeals to the insecure, the immature, who think they are hanging out with someone “cool”. The rest of us prefer serious, adult company.
By adult company do you mean outsourcing jobs, offshoring money in secret accounts, not paying taxes, etc.? Thanks but I’ll stick with the alternative, and according to other Americans they will be as well. But since we all don’t share your ‘grown up” views we’re all wrong? Sounds pretty immature to me …
You have no idea what outsourcing means. It is when a company, say Mcdonalds, realizes that an IT company can do IT better than a hamburger company. It is efficient, creates jobs, and is not the same as offshoring. As for “offshoring” money, that is no different than taking a vacation in France and spending. Your money, once earned, is yours. Where you put it or spend it is your own business in a free country. Instead of pining awawy hoping to hang out with the cool kids, you might have been better off studying. Of course I think you are “wrong” to support Obama and obviously I think Obama supporters are making a mistake. Half of the electorate thinks the other half is wrong, each election. I have never heard anyone say that this is somehow immature. That is asinine.
Dear Cynical:
I don’t mean to be a prick but why not, you have your shot everyday. I have three questions for you.
#1) What jobs did ROMNEY as CEO of Bain capital outsource? Whether to other US companies or overseas?
#2) Does the world know where you bank? No. Does that make it a secret? No. Besides, what business is it of yours?
#3) How do you know that Romney didn’t pay taxes? Or are you going to be like Gibbs and say “Well, we just don’t know,
do we?” I don’t know that you OR Gibbs paid taxes either. In fact, I can’t disclose the witness’ name but he told me he
saw you beat your wife. You can’t deny that. Prove it! Prove you don’t beat your wife! as Reid would say.
Actually, there were more than three questions, sorry.
In the engineering field I used to “hang out in,” someone like Obama would have been considered a joke.
In engineering, the guys that everybody wanted to hang out with are the guys who actually designed things: A cute circuit or a cool algorithm.
In fact, in one engineering company I used to work for, we had a guy very much like Obama: Friendly fellow, talked well, well read, intelligent–but never accomplished anything substantive in engineering. In the end, we recommended that his employment be terminated.
Obama is considered “cool” only by liberal arts and law majors. Take a look at Sandra Fluke’s bio:
Sandra majored in Policy Analysis and Management and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University, where she graduated with a BS in 2003.
Take a look at the bio of Jessica Valenti, the creator of the left-wing blog Feministing:
She received her degree in Feminist and Gender Studies from Rutgers University. Upon graduation, she went to work for the National Organization of Women.
That’s who thinks Obama is cool: A drone with a worthless degree who goes right into political activism without ever having built anything, designed anything, or patented anything.
It’s already happening!
My opinion is that Romney needs to get tough and attack. He needs to stop his “polite debate” and start to attack. There are a lot of soft points to hit, Obama’s hidden past ( college records and applications) his his statements while running in 2008 as examples. It would be a shame to loose to a to a socialist fraud because to wouldn’t attack someone’s weak points.
I cannot tell the folks who visit this website how angry I am. Obozo kicks Rommny in the teeth and in his nether regions and Rommny’s response is that “what has happened to hope and change.”Thats it. Are You kidding me? The democrats accuse you of not paying your taxes for 10 years and being a heartless capitalist who let a woman die of cancer, and that is your rebuttal. We do not need another Mccain. You are going to lose. You hear that priebus. We need a fighter. If you are not going to fight, get the HELL out of the race.We heard this crap from the repucicans in 2008. That worked out for us. How about boycotting the GOP convention and starting an tea party convention. Screw the idiots in the GOP. I am not a troll and have voted for the lesser of two evils. I am sick of it. This country is on the tipping point and We need a George Washington not a mealy mouth get along weeny. Come on America. Read “the art of “politcal war” by David Horowtz. As inartuclate as this rant is, I am going to post it anyway,
“Inartuclate” or not, you speak from the heart, and I hear you. We are ineluctably in deep bloody doo-doo, and we need to turn out in droves for this election. And/or polish up the pitchforks.
Added to my other comments.If he can’t or will not defend himself against a Metro-socialist anti-American how can we believe he will defend the country?
Even Democrats, such as Lanny Davis, are expressing disgust at the Obama campaign’s tactics. With Democrats expressing their disgust, and tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of Super-PAC money and plenty of Super-PACs to spend it, Romney personally can remain a gentleman. And he should. From today until Election Day, Romney’s sole focus should be on these three things: the economy, the economy and the economy.
Attack? Give me a break. The problem is that President Obama is being attacked, it just isn’t working.
Have you seen Obama’s poll numbers lately? He has already faced nearly $100 million in conservative Super Pac attack ads and his numbers have gone up!
And it’s not just Obama. Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown was supposed to be the most endangered senator this cycle—a freshman that was too crazy liberal for his closely divided state. As of early July, he had already faced $10.5 million in Super PAC attack ads, far more than any other. Yet through this year, his numbers have improved.
Maybe people have gotten good at tuning out attack ads. Or maybe they just skip commercials via DVR or online media consumption. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. But whatever the reason, those millions being spent by conservative billionaires are all being WASTED. The evidence is incontrovertible. So Karl Rove announces that he will spend $5 million targeting incumbent Senators in five states? Who cares! Rove has already spent $41.6 million and Democrats have only gotten stronger throughout the year.
Mitt Romney = Meg Whitman
CW? How much does the Demoncratic Party pay you to hang out on conservative websites and attempt to “dispirit the opposition”? Seriously, how much? And here’s a tip. A paid shill shouldn’t appear to be a liberal talking points machine, I am, however, happy that you clowns at the DNC are confident in your affirmative action candidates chances in November, keep believing those ridiculously slanted polls, please. Romney will win by 10 per cent, at least. Systemic fraud only works for awhile before it breaks down. Enjoy your whore money CW, you will be looking for real work in December.
There is no need for any attack ad. Just one that shows the rate of unemployment, the figures on deficit spending, the numbers going on disability, the rate of labor force participation etc. With one set of questions: do you think the policies of the last four years are working or making things worse ? Nothing personal, just are they working or not? As I believe they are not working and don’t want to deficit spend another 5 trilliion for the same bad results, I wont vote for Obama.
I don’t think a lot of swing voters have been exposed to the Romney you saw. His acceptance speech and the debates will give him that exposure, and, just like Reagan in ”80, a close race will turn into a blow out.
Hope is a many splendid thing …
HERE’S WHAT ROMNEY SHOULD DO.
Romney should do a commercial about who he is. He should stress that he grew up middle-class in middle America. If possible show the house he grew up in/near Detroit that was recently torn down. Stress he worked hard for his success. Explain what shaped his values. Imply that what you learn in your formative years stays with you for life.
What Romney shouldn’t do is say that Obama grew up in Indonesia. However, I certainly wouldn’t mind if a Super-PAC did a ‘who Obama is’ commercial.
Cool! Let Mr. Romney make three simple commitments described below, and I’d bet his respect and admiration for Americans and our way of life would be well deserved.
#1. Energy independence in 15 years. EVERYTHING is on the table: oil, fracking, coal, offshore, solar, biofuels, wind, etc – just not one stinking subsidy.
#2. Streamline taxes, use the 9-9-9 plan, better yet the Fair Tax, even a straight flat tax would be an improvement.
#3. Get to the Moon & Mars. Let private enterprise earn a $5 billion prize for building a lunar colony, without government subsidy. All comers welcome. Let NASA ride herd on the free enterprise space pioneers for a manned Martian station in 10 years – 15 years max.
Focus on the fact that the American spirit has overcome stunning problems with not much more that the can do spirit that lives in flyover country and spots along the coasts.
And start unscrewing all the screwed up legislation of the past generation.
HUZZAH!
Romney also has his personal stories to tell – ones that most have not heard:
- The day he and his sones rescued the Morrissey family on Lake Winnipesaukee.
- The story about leading the search mission for the Bain employee’s daughter.
These are powerful stories that tell us about Romney the Man. I hope they will get widespread attention closer to the election.
There’s also the story of how 18-year-old Mitt had to take control of the French mission team when their mission director’s wife was killed in a traffic accident. He re-energized a demoralized group, and by the time the director came back, their success rate was way up. (This sort of resembles the plot of “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway, only without all the obscenities.) Basically, this man knows how to fix and run an operation. Why, oh why isn’t America hearing about it?
Romney is not a Great Communicator — he evokes Ronald Reagan less than Jimmy Stewart — but he is utterly and unmistakably sincere.
Yeah, and millions of worried citizens, having been burned so many times before, are wondering sincere at what? While Mitt seems like a good guy and an excellent person, he projects no principle at all. Who cares what he believes, we need a leader who will outline where we’ve gone wrong, why, and how he intends to fix the wrongs.
*** 822 *** 832 *** 1066 *** 1230 *** 1492 *** 1683 *** 1994 *** 1995 *** 2001 ***
Sometimes I watch Fox News just to see how low the country has sunk, as in if these are the good guys, we’re sunk. But, I’ll give credit where it’s due. In a matter of minutes I saw a visibly upset Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Greta Van Susteren. All three were in visible shock at how Mitt is doing in the national argument and in the polls.
That’s a pattern. Me, I went into shock a week ago when John Sununu revealed during an interview that the plan was for Mitt to begin communicating in September. My jaw dropped to the floor, I could only think that to clean up decades of incremental decay requires carefully educating a miseducated public, a critical process that should have been started at the beginning at the primary by all the Republican candidates, but Mitt’s plan is so save the Big Moment for the last.
Romney wants to be America’s President. Obama wants to be America’s King/Emperor/Caesar/Fuhrer. No further information is even needed to know which one I will vote for. Well unless Romney goes stark raving mad and picks Imam Petraues as his running mate.
The unfortunate truth is that half of Americans believe the government is the one that generate wealth and grow the economy. And the reason for it is 100 years
of left wing brainwashing via education/media/government. It will take more than Romney to change the trajectory. We need to take over the local governments from school boards to state houses. Romney is not a BS artist he genuinely believe what he says, and says what he believes. America will blessed if he’s elected POTUS.
People who support Obama don’t believe in ‘government’; they believe in DEMOCRATS who boss the bureaucracies of government. To the indoctrinated mass that supports Big Government, the government they support is totally Democrat: totalitarian Democrat. There is nothing democratic about the Democrat Political Party.
You know Spengler I think your right about his communication skills, but lately you do see the passion he has for our country. However, there is one issue when you look at his website there is nothing. That subject is “The War on Drugs”. I know his personal feelings on drugs because he is Mormon. They can’t even drink coffee, but after reading the article below, I see from him the “same old, same old”. The millions upon millions of dollars we waste on this war needs to stop. His in bed with BigPharma is troubling. And his views on medicinal marijuana are immature and outdated. I will not vote for Obama but this area is troubling.
Sorry, forgot to attach article. Here it is:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/what-would-president-mitt-romneys-drug-policy-look-like/253547/
For a guy whose slogan is Optimismus ist Feigheit, you sure know how to cheer us up.
Thanks!
GOP voters, like GOP leaders, take the path of least resistance and then expect to achieve heroic results. Romney is showing every sign he will further devalue the GOP brand just as the self-described compassionate conservative GWB did. The conservative blogosphere is full of advice and suggestion on how Romney should engage. Tacit in this advice is the view Romney isn’t doing it right yet.
We refuse to make elections final decisions on whether we will be free or will be socialist. We confuse being mad because the country is becoming socialist and the other side being mad because we haven’t become socialist enough so that an election turn out a messiah from office with having settled the liberty/socialism question. The former Obama voters are mad he didn’t provide enough free unicorns and rainbows. They haven’t seen the light and embrace capitalism.
The GOP voters were desperate to hurry up and nominate the blandest man in the room as candidate and now, like we did with GWB, we are pretending our guy will become Gen Patton. I suppose we will replay this sorry soap opera a dozen more times, or a dozen times a dozen, before we stop choosing to short-circuit the primaries and we choose a fighter. We too will instantly change our tune from “he’s the man to fix everything” into “we’ll it could have been worse,” just the the Obama worshipers.
Until we face our dysfunctional habits we cannot expect change and many of us are losing hope as well.
It wasn’t “GOP voters were desperate to hurry up and nominate the blandest man in the room”, but a bevy of Right-Wing Media WH*RES, including Roger L. Smith of this site, bleating away at “IT’S OVER!” as early as even before the primaries began…even after only 3 or 4 of them…DISGUSTING. Browbeating and intimidation works on weak individuals, and does not adhere to party lines.
Obama MUST be defeated this November…even if we have to DRAG Mittens’ sorry-but-SINCERE posterior across the finish line. But yes, SHOULD HE LOSE, LOOK TO THE RINOs of the GOP, NOT US.
It’s SWEET that Romney is so “sincere.”
SO F*CKING WHAT?!?
Romney needs to grow a set of ba!!s, and PRONTO.
He’s running against a THUG who has no inhibition about running ads accusing Romney of murdering a steelworker’s wife…and SINCERITY is supposed to be enough?!?
Obama has handed Romney at least TWO golden gifts: “you didn’t build that” and this specious smear ad. And Romney’s reaction?
*crickets*
Or, at best, some variation of, “that’s not nice to say, and let’s talk about the economy, please.”
God help us, we ARE witnessing McCain 2.0.
He’s also utterly pathetic with regards to civil rights for men, whites, and legal immigrants. He’s so soft because he has never understood what struggle means; he can afford not to. Ordinary Americans have nothing in common with him. We get a choice between two aliens this election, and Gary Johnson.
BITE ME, HG!!!
Those who post here promoting the candidacy of Johnson or Paul in the November election only want a vain form of ideological purity, at the cost of freedom for all of us – as THAT is what is at stake here. Their pitiful pretenders WILL NOT WIN THIS NOVEMBER.
The reality is: it will be either Obama or Romney, so HELP ONE OR THE OTHER. A third party option is viable ONLY insofar as they have a realistic chance of winning…which THEIR CLOWNS DO NOT HAVE at this time.
These vain posters make themselves more foolish by deluding themselves so publicly. Worse: they endanger the future of this country for all by enabling the reelection of Obama.
Romney did not fix the Olympics, the atheletes did. He only contained costs and smoothed the organization. He played in the background, where a president belongs. What the media wants is a rock star, which he is not.
Another factor that Romney can not do is to get into Obama’s head in order to provoke another transparency outburst. It may not be possible for anyone to get into Obama’s head because there is no room for any body but Obama.
Romney is a counter puncher and has no high hard shot. That is the problem with the technocrats, gentlemen, and scholars.
America is a steaming pile of ….. I’m sorry but I have been out of work most of the Obama administration and pretty much altogether the last two years. I’m a lifelong yellow dog Republican but if I get a job (in the US- foreign hellholes don’t count) by election day I will vote for him. There’s no chance of that happening, so my record in safe. Advice for the unemployed amounts to keep gladhanding and sell yourself and if you can’t, you’re a loser and deserve to be out of work.
Mitt Romney faces certain doom if “People don’t buy a product because they believe in the product, but because the salesman believes in the product” because the product Romney is selling is Mitt Romney. Romney simply doesn’t come across as believing in himself.
There’s nothing wrong in the country that testicular fortitude can’t fix, the question is whether Mitt and the GOP are up to the task. Given that it’s going to be a nasty fight that will last years I’d have to say “No”. I’ve seen nothing from Mitt, the GOP, or the vast array of insightful pundits that suggest anything but slow capitulation. If Romney’s rep’s response to a vile Obama ad is “well, she would have had health insurance had she lived in Massachusetts” then he might as well quit now and save us 4 years of floundering. You’d think that Romney’s twit would have at least responded “the woman in question had health care, the woman in question decided not to spend her money buying insurance, the woman in question decided not to spend her money earlier in the process for a diagnosis, but Romney is somehow responsible for the outcome?” You’d think the Romneyite could have at least said “Mitt Romney believes in personal responsibility, if something isn’t important enough to you for you to spend your money then how can it be important enough for me to spend your neighbor’s money?”. But no, Mitt’s campaign just emphasized his Achilles Heel.
I will only vote for Mitt if he unequivocally states that he will NOT attack Iran unless they shoot the first missles. None of these idiots understand the Middle East. Solution? Move all the Palestinians to Norway where they can crap in the gene pool and hang around with the indegenes talking about how awful the Jews are.
*Thanks* for making it clear to readers here that
you’re enabling the re-election of Obama.
JERK.
Planned Parenthood Ignored Instruction to Call 911 in Abortion Death by Steven Ertelt Chicago, IL 8/7/12
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/08/07/planned-parenthood-ignored-instruction-to-call-911-in-abortion-death/
Rommey can’t ‘out-cool’ Obammer – and even if he could the media would still continue to swoon over Thee Won – so he needs to turn this to his advantage.
At the convention, he should come out to the podium, look the American people right through the camera, smile as genuinely as possible, and then make a point of noting that he is NOT the ‘cool’ candidate in this election.
He should note that he is not as smooth a public speaker, that he comes off as stiff and a bit of a square or nerd.
Then he should make the point that this election is not about being ‘cool’, but rather about being competent – and he has a history of being competent, and that the squares and nerds are the innovators and business leaders of the past couple of decades.
America needs the nerd right now to get back on it’s feet.
This would completely neutralize the ‘cool’ factor Obumbler supposedly has.
When he hits the debates he should consciously make his statements shorter and to the point, and keep hammering the focus onto Obummer and not let the focus shift onto himself.
Cue Devo! “The time has come for the revenge of the Nerds!”
Oh dear God – now I got a Devo tune stuck in my head, thanks a lot!!!!
LOL….seriously though – well, a little more seriously – Romney should take the same approach to neutralizing this perceived shortcoming as Reagan did in neutralizing the age issue in his own debates.
Turn it into a joke that he can laugh at, show the world that he does have a sense of humor, and leave his opponent with nothing to work against as the ‘cool’ factor ceases to be an issue.
Libertarian Party Presidential nominee Gary Johnson reveals his latest ad spot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x9bkXVccAs&feature=player_embedded
Those who post here promoting the candidacy of Johnson or Paul in the November election only want a vain form of ideological purity, at the cost of freedom for all of us – as THAT is what is at stake here. Their pitiful pretenders WILL NOT WIN THIS NOVEMBER. The reality is: it will be either Obama or Romney, so HELP ONE OR THE OTHER. A third party option is viable ONLY insofar as they have a realistic chance of winning…which THEIR CLOWNS DO NOT HAVE at this time. These vain posters make themselves more foolish by deluding themselves so publicly. Worse: they endanger the future of this country for all by enabling the reelection of Obama.
The reality is in America we can vote for whoever we want. You might feel it is a wasted vote, but I feel both sides of the news are being phony. You have a former governor running for president and his voice is not being heard. If we want the truth to be told then three candidates views should be told. Gov. Johnson is saying nothing crazy, his voice should be heard. Maybe by hearing his voice in msm, the other candidates would to comment on his views. Thus a healthier debate on this issues.
August 9, 2012 Could Vice President Ron Paul be in the works?
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32012/could-vice-president-ron-paul-be-in-the-works/
That’s crazy!
Indeed.
If Romney chose Paul as his VP and won, he would be putting himself at risk of asassination from anarchist End the Fed Paulnuts.
I had the pleasure of seeing Governor Romney in Frankenmuth, Michigan a couple of months ago. I must admit, he impressed me very much. A choir of black children sang our National Anthem and then all of us in attendance (1500) said the Pledge of Alligence to our flag.
Governor Romney gave an excellent speech. He is much different in a live crowd than on television. The audience was pumped and so was Romney. I walked away from this event knowing in my heart this man would make a good President.
Romney knows how to say ugly things about Obama in a nice way – presenting the facts. He told us every household in America is $500,000 in debt to the Federal Government. I would advise anyone to go see this man in person if they have the opportunity. He has gained alot of respect from being just who he is, a nice man. Yet he will be firm when he has to be. Romney really is in this to win and I have no doubt that he will.
I’m sure Romney knows this, but although small businesses create the most number of jobs, it is big business which creates most of the wealth … which in turn makes those small businesses viable. Florists are only viable in a place that is already wealthy. And that general wealth level is a creation primarily of the big, successful companies.
Today’s big businesses were yesterday’s small businesses.
Nobody could have imagined in 1979 that Apple Computer, which was busy selling Apple IIs to enthusiasts, would one day have a capitalization rivaling that of Exxon-Mobil.
And today’s big businesses may be tomorrow’s bankrupt businesses.
Nobody could have imagined in the early 1980s that Digital Equipment Corporation, a giant computer maker and Massachusetts’ second biggest employer, would go out of business in another 25 years.
I don’t think it’s helpful to assess the impact of small business by focusing just on “mom and pop” florist shops. How about a 75 employee specialty machinist plant?
Small speciality machinist shops typically make their money supplying to big businesses, not end customers. A successful small business is one which becomes a big business (Bain Capital being an excellent example). One which remains small is not generating enough wealth to invest in growth.
”A successful small business is one which becomes a big business” – with all due respect, I think it’s rather obvious that a small business that expands from 75 to 7,500 employees is probably more successful than one which has not expanded to 7,500. My point was that small businesses are much more than mom and pop flower shops Their ability to quickly respond to customers and generally be nimble in the economy is significant.
WHY SOBBING JOE SOPTIC SHOULD BE THANKING MITT ROMNEY
Why should poor jobless bitter widower Joe Soptic be thanking Mitt Romney and singing his praises instead of bashing him as a greedy, heartless, murdering, jobs destroying GOP businessman? Because Romney and Bain prolonged the life of Soptic’s struggling company by 8 YEARS, and with it Soptic’s job. Indeed, if Romney hadn’t made the bad decision (a rarity for him) to help distressed and struggling GST Steel, Soptic’s unsalvagable company, it would have folded in 1993 instead of 2001; this means that the ungrateful pathetic lying Mr, Soptic would have lost his job sooner rather than later and with it a considerable amount of money: 8 YEARS OF WAGES.
Click my name to read more on this subject.
If polls are to believed, and only actual votes count, then Romney is in a world of hurt and therefore the United States is in a world of hurt. If Obama wins then this nation is hopeless and the “American Dream of Freedom” will not be on a sick bed, it will be dead. We will have voted in a King! Maybe the majority of Americans actually want Communism and Tyranny. After all, it is individuals who decide who gets hired to represent them.
Perhaps freedom lovers should start looking beyond voting and ask “what now?” Its becoming very clear that our neighbors don’t want what we want. Going Galt, whatever that means for individuals, might be the last choice we have.
Romney neds to keep his focus on the ECONOMY. Obama’s base is crumbling and things are looking up for Romney.
Obama’s dismal performance on the economy and jobs will doom his reelection prospects. His strongest base of support from Blacks and Hispanics is being hit the hardest by Obama’s failure to stem their job losses, their race toward poverty and their embrace of food stamps. Witness the following disgraceful numbers that you will never see the MSM or the Obama “Truth Team” repeating:
■Blacks not in the labor force – rose from 11,345,000 to 11,534,000. 189,000 African Americans disappeared from the labor force in July.
■Hispanics not in the labor force – rose from 12,120,000 to 12,294,000. 174,000 Hispanics disappeared from the work force.
363,000 African American and Hispanic workers disappeared from the labor force in the month of July!
The Real Unemployment Number of 15.0% has moved back to where it was in February of 2009, a month after President Obama took office.
“The U.S. average weekly wage decreased over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011. This is one of only five declines in the history of the series which dates back to 1978.”
“Among the 322 largest counties, 282 had over-the-year declines in average weekly wages.”
“Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.”
Nearly 46.5 million Americans participated in SNAP, America’s Food Stamp program, in May of this year. The actual total of 46,496,788 exceeded April’s total by 222,157 and was 1,086,103 more than in May of 2011. One of every seven Americans is on the food stamp program.
With President Obama sporting numbers like these it’s easy to understand why his “Truth Team” will not be reporting them, nor will Obama’s MSM lapdogs. Obama’s “Truth Team” and the MSM should, like the wounded victims in his Black and Hispanic base, find them “morally objectionable.”
Mitt Romney and his team should focus on the unfortunate truth of President Obama’s dismal performance on the economy. Romney should ignore the repeated calls for his tax records and the phoney media claims of his “failed” trip to Europe. They are distractions invented by the administration and the Obama “Truth Team” to cover up the real truth: that President Obama’s policies have failed.
Obama’s base is desperate for the “Hope” and “Change” promised by him in 2008. Blacks and Hispanics, like Americans of every color and from every religion, will be thinking differently when they go to the polls in November.
More on this including links to all of the published “truths” above can be found at: http://sleeplessandtired.com/?p=7338
“he really believes in ordinary Americans”
Say it a few (hundred?) more times… you know what? I might believe it.
“This election comes down to whether people will vote to lock in dependency — with transfer payments running to a fifth of all personal income, dependency has a bigger constituency than ever it did in the past — or for a chance to work their way out of the hole”. If the history is any guide they will chose dependency.
Another thing. Also, why Romney’s campaign is so timid now, while in primaries he fought viciously against Gingrich? Something doesn’t compute. So unless he will start to really fight pretty soon, I will chalk it up to the establishment’s preference for the country’s direction Obama und Co is taking it.
grr has a point. Why isn’t Romney attacking in the manner he did during the primaries. Remember FOX news reporting that Romney had no strategy except attacking Santorum and Gingrich?
On the WSJ Opinion Journal Live, Democratic pollster Doug Schoen asks WSJ Editorial Board member Mary Kissel “We haven’t heard a coherent and clear plan from Governor Romney, have we?” Kissel sputtters for more than 30 seconds and cannot answer the question.
Now if a member of the WSJ Editorial Board (who as Schoen remarks are often better at knowing Romney’s position than is Romney’s campaign staff) doesn’t know what Romney’s reply is on the Obama attack ads, then there is no reply. Romney is being pummeled senseless right now and may not be able to turn it around in the important swing states. Paul Ryan, fiscal and social conservative giant, will only end up being tarred with Romney’s ineffective campaigning.
It’s a sad thing to watch a once promising candidate make one misstep after another. Like watching Frazier fight haplessly against Ali.
Here’s the link to the WSJ Opinion Journal Live Video. Skip ahead to 15 minutes in the segment to get to the Schoen-Kissel interview.
Schoen-Kissel interview