Thursday, September 20, 2012

Romney's entire world revolves around money

Rmoney photoshop of Romney rally Accurate. When asked by a friendly Fox hack why he decided to ignore the troops in his nomination acceptance speech, Mitt Romney responded:
Because when you give a speech, you don't give a laundry list. You talk about the things that uh you think are important. And I described in my speech my commitment to a strong military unlike the President's decision to cut our military. And I didn't use the word troops, I used the world military. I think they refer to the same thing [...]

And unlike the President who we understand from Bob Woodward's book, at least from the excerpts, the President was and the White House part of the author of this sequestration idea that would slash our military. I oppose that idea, think it is absolutely wrong to cut our military as the President is doing.

We've already noted how Romney is unable to see individuals. Corporations are people! The military are troops! Neither is the case. Nor is the bizarre notion that expressing support for the military is in any way the same thing as offering personal thanks and gratitude to the individuals making sacrifices to serve their nation. Heck, too many of them are making the ultimate sacrifice. If you're running for commander in chief, the least you can do is acknowledge that.

But there's another element to that quote that always struck me as obnoxious'the notion that keeping them over-funded was an adequate measure of support.

But those thoughts didn't crystalize until reading the this:

Romney so far has held far fewer public events than either presidential candidate did four years ago, and has spent a significant amount of time in states ' Massachusetts, California, New York, Texas ' that are not considered up for grabs in November.

Most of that time has been spent fundraising or preparing for his three coming debates with President Obama.

And this:
Romney has not held a public event since Friday and spent much of Tuesday raising money in Utah and Texas.

'He needs to be talking about the economy and not in Utah,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 'He's not going to get beat because of money. He ought to be running in Ohio and Florida like he's running for governor and running in Virginia like he's running for sheriff.'

Fundraisers are a part of any campaign. But what makes Romney's fundraising-centric schedule so amazing is:
Romney's busy fundraising schedule comes despite the fact that his campaign is flush with cash. Together with the Republican National Committee, it had $168.5 million in the bank at the end of August. In each of the last three months, Romney's campaign raked in more than $100 million.
There are roughly six weeks left in the campaign. And sure, Romney's relative dearth of small-dollar donors forces him to rely on traditional fundraisers which require the candidate's attendance. But at some point you decide you have more money than you will need for what little is left in this campaign, and you start focusing on trying to win votes.

Yet that transition has been difficult for Romney.

Part of it is that he's clearly more comfortable talking to his fellow One Percenters. Just compare his demeanor at the 47 Percent Fundraiser to the time he mocked the ponchos of fans at the Daytona 500, or told those sweet ladies that their fancy schmancy gourmet cookies looked like they came from 7-Eleven. The asshole Republicans at those big-dollar fundraisers are actually impressed that he knows the owner of the Dolphins! Heck, they probably want in on Bain's next investment fund.

But beyond that, like in the example at the top of this post, there's a clear sense that Romney believes that money is the solution to all. If soldiers want to feel appreciated, well, spending a few more billion on unnecessary F-35s or another nuclear submarine will take care of that! He's running behind in the presidential race, well, it's nothing that a few more fundraisers won't fix because he couldn't possibly be losing if he had fundraising parity with Obama!

In other words, Romney can't fathom that sometimes it's just not about who has the most money.

Not that this is any great revelation. Romney is a bishop who cries when he gives some of his multitudes of dollars to his own church. He is the guy who has unbridled rage at those 47 percent of moochers (including seniors and combat-zone troops) who don't have to pay federal income taxes.

His world revolves around money. And as powerful as money might be, it isn't everything'which is one of the big reasons he is losing this race.


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