Romney Causes Cancer

[Gaspar]

Just thought I'd beat RM to the punch.

This is a sad ad for both this gentleman and for President Obama.  If you are gong to run a negative campaign, you probably want to shy away from cherry-picking things that are easily researched.  The Obama campaign needs to continue to focus tax returns and their war on women memes, because they are just embarrassing themselves this this drivel, and taking advantage of people like this is deplorable.

In 1993 GST steel was in trouble.  The steel industry in general had already lost 20,000 jobs, and Armco who owned GST was faced with selling it or shutting it down.  The plant that originally employed 4,500 employees had scaled down to 750 and Armco had just let an additional 75 go.  Bane came in and purchased the company for $80 million and invested an additional $100 million in new equipment and upgrades to the plant.

It worked! By 1996-1997 the company had generated $1 billion in revenue.  But this didn't last long.  The flood of cheep Chinese steel could not be overcome and by 1999 (the year Romney left Bain) GST was recording $53 million in losses.  By 2001, the Bush administration imposed measures to limit China's ability to "dump" steel on the US markets.  It was too late for GST.  They went bankrupt.  Bain could not save these jobs, but they did give the workers at GST 8 additional years of employment.

At the same time, Bain also purchased an Indiana start-up called Steel Dynamics. It today reports $6.3 billion in revenue—25 times what it claimed in its 1996 IPO, and now employs 6,000.

Romney was involved with the purchase of both companies but he was long gone when GST filed for bankruptcy.  If this is the best attack that the Obama administration can launch against Mitt Romney, they've got some real challenges ahead.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577410573651845802.html

[Conan71]

Why wasn't Romney tried for manslaughter in this woman's death?  He obviously needs to shoulder all the blame for it.

[RecycleMichael]

This guy lost his job, lost his health insurance and lost his wife.

But you guys make fun of it.

Real classy.

[Gaspar]

This guy lost his job, lost his health insurance and lost his wife.

But you guys make fun of it.

Real classy.

Didn't make fun.  Said it was unfortunate and sad.  What is deplorable is that President Obama is politicizing it.

[Conan71]

This guy lost his job, lost his health insurance and lost his wife.

But you guys make fun of it.

Real classy.

Really?

I think it's tacky that either the Obama campaign or a Super PAC would parade a widower around and make his deceased wife a political pawn.  Sorry my sarcasm in response to this despicable act was lost on you.

They literally would stoop so low as to make people think that Romney was personally responsible for this fellow having no health insurance.  Nevermind that health insurance or not, his wife may have died anyhow.

Doesn't it piss you off that the DNC and large DNC donors think Democrat voters are dumb enough to believe this pap?  This presumption of ignorance offends me.

[Gaspar]

This presumption of ignorance offends me.

You get numb to it over time.  It's part of the core, and helps both parties to maintain power structures built on layers of dependency or fear.

Even if you go back past the "granny off the cliff" advertising, all the way back to Thomas Nast's caricature of Democrats as Asses trying to scare voters into submission.  His original cartoon from 1874 shows the Democrat donkey dressed as a lion frightening away all of the other animals, and was in response to the Democrats campaign to convince voters that Grant intended to run for a third term as president.  It eventually led to the parties adopting the symbols of the Donkey and the Elephant.  Prior to that the Donkey was adopted by Andrew Jackson because people called him an donkey. Republicans liked the concept of being portrayed as elephants strong enough to fend off the donkey's fear-mongering, however both parties engage in the act.



Boil it down over the course of history and you find the very simple tenants of Democratic campaigns:
1. If you elect me, the government will give you _________.
2. If you do not elect me, the Republicans will take __________.

It's a simple dependent relationship, free of the burden of liberty or individual responsibility.  It's simple for the simple to understand, and easy for the elite to employ.  It uses the concept of "hope" to generate votes, and the fear of losing "hope" to preserve them.

Republican philosophy has grown to be similar, but slightly more complex:
1. If you elect me, the government will let you keep your ________.
2. If you elect Democrats they will take your _______.

It's a little more complex because it relies on the concept that individuals already have a resource (or resourcefulness) or can provide for themselves, and therefore does not appeal to a large segment of the public.  It also requires liberty and individual responsibility.  It uses "liberty" to generate votes, and the fear of losing "liberty" to preserve them.

Again, this is a distillation, but I think it accurately portrays how each party uses fear mongering.

[AquaMan]

The only humor and irony in this thread is anyone complaining about Democrats running negative campaigns. You guys hold the certificate of merit. Dems have a long way to go to make up for Swiftboating, Willie Horton, birthers etc.

[guido911]

Aquaman showing his idiocy once more:

[guido911]

This guy lost his job, lost his health insurance and lost his wife.

But you guys make fun of it.

Real classy.

And you are being classy by apparently finding it okay to turn his grief into a tool to get votes?

[Gaspar]

The only humor and irony in this thread is anyone complaining about Democrats running negative campaigns. You guys hold the certificate of merit. Dems have a long way to go to make up for Swiftboating, Willie Horton, birthers etc.

Sorry, had to share that one too.  Thanks. 

[Townsend]

Sorry, had to share that one too.  Thanks. 

Does everyone tell you the eye rolling is a medical condition?

[Gaspar]

When President Obama took over GM and shut down hundreds of dealerships across the country to cut costs, I bet there were tens of thousands of workers who lost their jobs and insurance.  I hope they're all ok.  I wonder if the Romney campaign is scouring the countryside to find one with a dead spouse?  Guess we'll just have to wait and see.   Of course they probably all found jobs right away during the summer of recovery.

[Conan71]

And let's definitely not mention that Jonathan Levine, an Obama bundler was one of the directors at Bain when GST was shut down.  Romney had left the day-to-day operations well before GST was shut down.

Isn't it hypocritical of Obama to accept money from a vulture capitalist, especially a director of a company the Obama campaign has sought to demonize?

[Gaspar]

And let's definitely not mention that Jonathan Levine, an Obama bundler was one of the directors at Bain when GST was shut down.  Romney had left the day-to-day operations well before GST was shut down.

Isn't it hypocritical of Obama to accept money from a vulture capitalist, especially a director of a company the Obama campaign has sought to demonize?

Hold it right there mister!  Romney is supported by Super PACs, and they are funded by the Devil and the brothers Koch, and none of them have paid taxes in the last 10 years.  The word is out!

[Townsend]

Hold it right there mister!  Romney is supported by Super PACs, and they are funded by the Devil and the brothers Koch, and none of them have paid taxes in the last 10 years.  The word is out!

queue eye rolls?