Mitt Romney kept quiet last week when the subject was rape and God's will. He remained silent the week before when the news was all about Illinois factory workers pleading with him to stop his alma mater Bain Capital from offshoring their jobs.
At no time this year did Mitt denounce Republican employers who threatened their workers if President Obama is re-elected or condemn repeated Republican legislative attempts to suppress Democratic votes.
Throughout the campaign, Mitt Romney confronted numerous George Washington moments -- opportunities to establish an aura of honor. It takes moxie to tell fellow Republicans that voter suppression is un-American. Only a guy with strongly held principles would stand up to the firm he founded and insist they stop the morally bankrupt practice of offshoring jobs from profit-making American factories. At every turn, Romney chose the ignoble path. He kept his mouth shut rather than speak up for what's right.
Just last week, an opportunity for righteousness landed in Romney's lap. It happened when the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana, Richard E. Mourdock, said he opposed all abortions, even in cases of rape, and suggested that God intends rape to happen. Here's what Mourdock said:
Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something that God intended to happen.
But he didn't. A campaign spokeswoman said Mitt "disagreed" with Mourdock on that rape thing, but still supports him. Since then, Mitt has refused to answer questions about Mourdock. And he's kept airing his Mourdock endorsement ads.
Clearly, Mitt values a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate over a decent stand on rape.
Just the week before, heightened news coverage of the plight of workers at the Sensata factory in Freeport, Ill. gave Romney another opportunity to do the right thing.
He chose to do nothing.
The 170 workers at Sensata will lose their jobs at year's end when Bain Capital finishes shipping the car sensor factory lock, stock and machinery to China. The workers have repeatedly petitioned Romney to intervene with Bain, a firm he created and still profits from, to stop the offshoring.
Romney stiffed them. The candidate who claims he would create 12 million jobs if elected president failed to make an attempt to save the jobs of these 170 workers at a successful, money-making American factory. He didn't send the workers his condolences for personally profiting from their calamity. He has never even acknowledged the Sensata workers' existence.
At virtually any moment as he ran for president over the past two years, Romney could have very publically deplored Republican attempts to suppress Democratic votes. That's because virtually continuously over that time,Republican-controlled legislatures, Republican governors and other GOP officials have concocted a variety of measures to wrest from Democrats their right to vote. These include passing onerous photo ID requirements, limiting early balloting and aggressively purging voter rolls.
These measures disproportionately affect minority, poor, disabled, elderly and women voters, all of whom tend to vote Democrat. Among the most egregious examples occurred in Ohio where the secretary of state tried to limit poll hours in Democratic-dominated counties and extend them in Republican-controlled counties.
At any time during the massive publicity over any one of these incidents across the country -- from Maine to Montana and Florida to Arizona -- Romney could have stood up and spoken for fairness. He never did -- not even after the Republican National Committee was forced to fire a shady voter registration firm that was caught in September submitting hundreds of fraudulent registration forms in Florida or after a Republican operative in Virginia was criminally charged in October with throwing completed voter registration forms in a Dumpster.
A simple statement from Romney would have sufficed: winning by means of voter suppression and registration fraud is craven and beneath the dignity of anyone seeking public office. But he said nothing.
Similar to voter suppression is the attempt at voter coercion that has been made by numerous employers this year. Just this past week, Mike White, owner of Rite-Hite, a Milwaukee industrial equipment manufacturer, threatened his workers with "personal consequences" if President Obama is re-elected. Earlier this month, timeshare mogul David Siegel, who is building himself a 90,000-square-foot, $100 million home, threatened to lay off his workers if President Obama is re-elected. Arthur Allen of ASG Software Solutions and the Koch brothers of Georgia Pacific, told their tens of thousands of workers they'd suffer fallout if Romney loses.
Romney could have acted as a shield for workers by condemning this intimidation. Instead, in a June conference call with business owners, Romney encouraged bullying. He told the business owners:
I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections.
Follow Leo W. Gerard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/uswblogger
Robert Kuttner: Obama and the Economy
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
The part of narcissism I'm interested in at the moment is the cardinal sign naïveté of the narcissist. Romney didn't bother with writing a concession speech considering it a waste of time. He also spent $25,000 on unused fireworks. And when the results came in it was reported he was shell shocked. He considered it impossible for his larger than life self to lose.
Romney is surely tucked away somewhere licking his narcissistic injury and his occasional appearances on his Facebook or Twitter likely only give him a brief respite from what Mitt Romney is.
which served as the model for the new Federal law. Yet later, as the Supreme Court was deciding on the constitutionality of the new Federal law, Romney was prominently speaking
on TV alongside a sign that indicated that if elected President, he would see to it that the new
Federal law was repealed. Before the new Federal law was passed, a person in Vermont
would not have had the protected access to healthcare that a person in Massachusetts had.
on account of that state's law. Query: Was this not a simple example of big time flipfloppiing?
How come a person like this is the Republican party's choice to be President of the United
States?
It's hard to believe that he was a BISHOP(?).
Part 4 of 4
"The 170 workers at Sensata will lose their jobs at year's end when Bain Capital finishes shipping the car sensor factory lock, stock and machinery to China. The workers have repeatedly petitioned Romney to intervene with Bain, a firm he created and still profits from, to stop the offshoring."
• Romney has refused to help the Sensata workers
• When all those jobs are in China, he will profit handsomely
• The former Sensata employees will lose their jobs, health insurance, everything!
• Romney will probably put the money in his Swiss bank account, or Caymen Islands account, or Bermuda Island accounts, where it cannot be fully taxes by the IRS.
In the article:
"Just last week, an opportunity for righteousness landed in Romney's lap. It happened when the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Indiana, Richard E. Mourdock, said he opposed all abortions, even in cases of rape, and suggested that God intends rape to happen. Here's what Mourdock said:
Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something that God intended to happen."
• Romney won't say anything - but he supports Mourdock
• Romney touts Mourdock as the "51st vote" that he needs, for Ryan to push down our throats "the Personhood Bill."
• If a child is impregnated when raped, under Romney…….the child will essentially be punished for the consequences
• If a child is impregnated as a result of incest, under Romney/Ryan, the poor victim will be forced to have the baby
• If a woman's life is in jeopardy, she'll die, as she will not be allowed to have a life-saving termination under Romney/Ryan
• If a woman is impregnated as a result of rape, under Romney/Ryan she will be forced to give birth
• However, if you are impregnated by a Republican, if you're a mistress, abortions are different…….
In the article:
"Only a guy with strongly held principles would stand up to the firm he founded and insist they stop the morally bankrupt practice of offshoring jobs from profit-making American factories. At every turn, Romney chose the ignoble path. He kept his mouth shut rather than speak up for what's right."
• Romney/Bain profit when an American company goes under and the jobs are sent overseas
• It doesn't matter if the business is profitable or not
• What matters is they are able to bill the company for a consultation fee, charge the company for Heaven knows what, burdening it with debt;
• Take the company apart piece-meal; maximizing profit
• This includes raiding the pensions!
In the article:
"At no time this year did Mitt denounce Republican employers who threatened their workers if President Obama is re-elected or condemn repeated Republican legislative attempts to suppress Democratic votes."
• Romney supports "Republican employers who threaten their workers" to vote for him or lose their jobs
• Romney is in favor or voter suppression
• Romney is in favor of anti-Democratic positions
• Romney doesn't like the Democratic process
• Are socialists against or for Democracy?
• Are Marxists against or for Democracy?
• Are extremists against or for Democracy?
• Are communists against or for Democracy?
• Is Romney against or for Democracy?
of wealth and brags about his financial "success" every chance he gets. When it comes to his personal ethics, though, Mitt Romney is morally bankrupt. He has been consistently wrong so many times that he's viewed as hollow with no moral compass. There is something seriously wrong with Romney.
Anyone who lies as much as he has, flip flopped, avoided taxes is saying to the American public, "You know I'm lying and don't care; and I know I'm lying and don't care."
If this is Mormonism, I'm taking the first flight to Belize.
Says Mitt Romney "backed a bill that outlaws all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest."
"I made a bunch of these promises during the campaign. ... We've got about 60 percent done in three years."
Because of Obamacare, "over the last two years, health care premiums have gone up -- it's true -- but they've gone up slower than any time in the last 50 years."
"Over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90 percent of that is as a consequence of" President George W. Bush’s policies and the recession.
"Fast and Furious" began under the Bush administration. It began in 2009. Â
Says Mitt Romney would deny gay people the right to adopt children.
"The only time government employment has gone down during a recession has been under me."
If the Supreme Court throws out the federal health care law, it "would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress." A “slim majority,” in actuality.
"For the first time since 1990, American manufacturers are creating new jobs."
"I didn't raise taxes once."
"Thirty million Americans, including a lot of people in Florida, are going to be able to get healthcare next year because of that law."