Mitt Romney’s Advice to College Grads in Ohio…

Just borrow from your parents!

Can’t find a job? Take risks! Start a business. Borrow $20,000 from your parents, like his friend Jimmy John. This is the “American experience.” He is way out of touch with the majority of Americans today if he thinks most parents have thousands of dollars sitting around to hand over to their kids after helping them get through college. Even if they haven’t helped with college, many parents are up to their eyeballs in their own debt: mortgages, credit cards, home improvement loans, car loans…

Of course Mitt Romney is rich and his parents are rich. That’s why he can afford to make jokes about unemployment and he isn’t worried about the poor. That’s why he thinks nothing of suggesting that students run to their parents for thousands of dollars to start a business, when they are probably already shouldering thousands of dollars in college loan debt. Romney is rich and has no clue how the middle class lives. A four year college education at a private school can easily cost $150,000, which is just pocket change to Romney, whose net worth is estimated to be about $250 million dollars. To hard working people and their children, it’s a burdening debt that is almost impossible to pay back, especially in these times with high unemployment. 

Is it that hard to get a fix on how most people in this country are living today? Romney doesn’t even have to do the research himself. He has a staff who can do polls, look online, check unemployment statistics, look up college tuition costs, the amount of money people are taking on various loans, etc…the information is out there and the money is not. 

How is Romney supposed to represent the majority when he relates only to the rich minority? 

Hey, anybody out there got a few thousand dollars to lend to your children to start a business since they can’t get jobs after paying $150,000 for their education? Somehow I don’t think there are many parents who can.

And, college grads, if take Romney's advice and go to your parents to ask for money, tell them Mitt Romney sent you.

Mitt Romney Goes To London…

I swear I am not following politics this year. I washed my hands of it because it gets too heated and people sometimes take things personally, when they aren’t meant to be. We all have our own ideas of what is best for the country, just different visions on how to get there. But, every now and then, something comes up in the news and it’s in my face once too many times for me to ignore. Today it’s Mitt Romney and his remarks concerning London and the Olympics. I am having a hard time processing this for several reasons.

Mitt Romney basically insulted Great Britain and it’s preparedness for the Olympics when he said, “There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging.” 

Romney made his comments on the first day of his visit to London. Way to go. Let’s face it, we are not the most popular country on the planet and what we don’t need from our “leaders” is for them to insult our allies. Foreign policy and diplomacy are supposed to be critical skills for the office of President of the United States. The President isn’t supposed to alienate allies, is he? Maybe I am missing something? I also fail to see what business is it of Mitt Romney’s how London prepares for and handles the Olympics? Did they offer him advice when he hosted it in Salt Lake City in 2002? I’m sure they know far better than he does the pitfalls of their city and what precautions need to be taken. Seems to me he got off on the wrong foot. It was a time when he should have been positive and supportive of London, an opportunity to further strengthen our bonds and celebrate their hosting of the games. Instead, he was critical, condescending and insulting. And there is no “backspace” or “delete” button once his words were uttered, they were memorialized for all time and spread like wildfire across the media and internet. 

If this is how Mitt Romney chooses to approach our allies, what will he say to our enemies? Does he know the meaning of diplomacy? Do we really want him to be the person discussing more serious issues with foreign countries when he can’t seem to just be polite and congratulate London without causing a ton of bad press over insensitive and unnecessary remarks? He has angered our allies and put them on the defensive and no amount of backtracking is going to fix it, because they aren’t stupid and they know it’s just about damage control. I can just hear our “enemies” now, “if that’s how he talks about his friends, imagine what he has to say about us?” I don’t know about you, but it makes me nervous to think of him discussing disarmament and nuclear weapons with other countries.

I seem to recall, when President Obama was campaigning and went overseas, he won over many countries. So many countries welcomed him and were happy he was running for our highest office. He was praised and held in high regard.

Romney, on the other hand, not only made himself look bad, he made America look bad. His first “test” in foreign policy, “don’t offend your allies” was an epic fail. And this was just the beginning of his trip, he has more countries to visit. No doubt he will try to be more careful. Will he succeed in not alienating others, or is it too late? In any case, there will definitely be no Gold Medal for Romney in foreign policy.

Etch A Sketch Politics?

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I read this online this morning. In fact let me go back and look again in case I am not fully awake. Nope, I read correctly. Specifically, what Santorum said was that if he isn’t picked as the Republican nominee, then republicans should give Obama another term in office. I have to say, his thinking sounds good to me. I haven’t heard anything I like so far from anyone who is attempting to run against Obama in the election come November…until now. Santorum is making sense to me.

I’m sure Santorum isn’t making fellow republicans very happy these days, but he got my attention. What is Santorum’s argument against Romney and for Obama? Well, for starters, he says that Romney isn’t conservative enough. He is just slightly different than Obama and that’s not good enough. Then he calls Romney an “Etch A Sketch” candidate which he got from Romney’s own advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, who feels the fall campaign is  "It's almost like an Etch A Sketch," he said on CNN. "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again." This didn’t go over well. “The remark reignited criticism of Romney as the type of politician who will say or do anything to win.”

Of course, Romney and many others, were not pleased with Santorum’s comment. Republicans, as a whole, I think would rather have any republican in office, than Obama. For instance, Newt Gingrich tweeted: "Rick Santorum is dead wrong. Any GOP nominee will be better than Obama." And Santorum didn’t just stop with that comment. He attacked Romney as someone who is not real and just says what people want to hear. I find this refreshingly honest. Maybe I will go back and listen to some of the other things Santorum has had to say?

Now if Romney is in the lead and winning because of certain things he has been saying, but in the fall plans to shake things up and start over, do we really know what his platform will be? What I find curious is that republicans, in general, do not like Obama’s health care plan, which was modeled on Romney’s plan, so why on earth would they support Romney? 

I find politics very confusing. However, I do understand how an Etch A Sketch works. You turn the two dials and the picture never turns out the way you imagine it. You have almost no control as you what will appear on the screen, try as you might. It’s usually a huge mess and yes you do have to start over all the time, by shaking it up. Is this what Romney’s adviser wants us to vote for? Will it be called “Etch A Sketch Romonomics?” I don’t know, I really just don’t know. What if Santorum is right? If Romney is the republican pick, maybe republicans should start supporting Obama. I second that motion.

Mitt Romney Jokes About Unemployment…

Ironically, last June, Mitt Romney joked about being unemployed himself, to a group of voters in Florida. Mitt has spent the last eight years running for president, so technically he would be correct. However, as a concerned citizen about the high rate of unemployment, and watching it affect my loved ones and friends, I do not find his comments funny. I find it even more offensive when I have come to learn, in recent days, that the man claims to make over 20 million ($20,000,000+) a year. AND, on top of that, pays the bear minimum of 14% in income tax! Imagine him trying to “relate” to the general public and “whine” about his misfortune, joking or not?

Poor Mitt has a family fortune of about a quarter of a billion dollars. I came across an article that said in 1998 he made 342 million from a company, Bain Capital in Florida, that was going bankrupt. I’m sure I could find many examples of why he shouldn’t be joking about unemployment. He will never be able to relate to the average American citizen, he has been rich all his life. Why should unemployment be a priority to him? I think he is just saying what people want to hear, but his true colors came out last June.

I am not listening to the politicians campaign. Maybe after the Republicans settle down and pick someone, I might pay more attention. However, I can’t help but be caught in some of the crossfire when I hear things on the news or some discussion at the family dinner table. When I hear Romney speak, I find him annoying. I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t think he takes the issues we face as a country seriously. He seems to have a cavalier attitude to me. I am not going to listen more closely to see if I change my opinion. I don’t care enough. However, I heard this morning that Newt Gingrich is gaining more support these days, but the polls keep fluctuating. No one is clearly ahead when it comes to these two. And this is the case even after Newt’s ex-wife put out some disturbing information about their marriage. So, I guess Romney isn’t irritating just me? Either way, I am not happy with either candidate.

I find politics exhausting. People are always debating the issues to death. We all basically want the same things. To live as our forefathers said, with certain inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It’s just that simple. We have to fix the things that are interfering with these rights. No one seems very happy to me. This used be called the land of opportunity. It held promise and hope for all who came here. Now all we hear about are people in despair, who want to work and can’t find jobs; who are sick and don’t have health care; who want to pay their bills, but have no money for food. Something has gone terribly wrong and pointing fingers of blame is a waste of time and energy; it’s not productive. What would be nice is if democrats and republicans rolled up their sleeves, forgot about party lines and got to work. That’s only going to happen if we get rid of all the male politicians and elect females instead. Women know how to work together to accomplish a common goal without their egos getting in the way. They don’t care about getting the credit, they just want to come up with a solution. How about a little experiment? We make all the male politician stay home and let their wives take over for a while and see how things go?

I’ll bet Mitt Romney’s wife wouldn’t be joking about unemployment, she’d be working to fix it.