Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

The Establishment Strikes Back

Something interesting may be going on. It appears that the Establishment is having their come to Jesus moment. While wanting to continue their Bush tax cut rates, they also realize that Romney would be a total disaster ala W as President. So there are articles appearing that seem meant more to influence opinion makers than the common electorate.

Three examples starting with David Stockman:

Except Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way-out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn “roll-ups,” and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale-the faster the better.

…

The Bain Capital investments here reviewed accounted for $1.4 billion or 60 percent of the fund’s profits over 15 years, by my calculations. Four of them ended in bankruptcy; one was an inside job and fast flip; one was essentially a massive M&A brokerage fee; and the seventh and largest gain-the Italian Job-amounted to a veritable freak of financial nature.

In short, this is a record about a dangerous form of leveraged gambling that has been enabled by the failed central banking and taxing policies of the state. That it should be offered as evidence that Mitt Romney is a deeply experienced capitalist entrepreneur and job creator is surely a testament to the financial deformations of our times.

Mitt Romney: The Great Deformer

Next, Walter De Vries, claims George would be ashamed of Mitt:

Walter De Vries, who worked for the senior Mr. Romney throughout the 1960s, wrote that Mitt Romney’s bid for the White House was “a far cry from the kind of campaign and conduct, as a public servant, I saw during the seven years I worked in George Romney’s campaigns and served him as governor.”

“While it seems that Mitt would say and do anything to close a deal – or an election,” he wrote, “George Romney’s strength as a politician and public officeholder was his ability and determination to develop and hold consistent policy positions over his life.”

…

Mr. De Vries, who said he wished to the see the Republican Party return to its moderate roots, said he intended to vote for Mr. Obama on Election Day.

Romney Is Attacked by His Father’s Longtime Aide

Saving the best for last, the Beltway Insiders open the kimono:

What does Washington’s political elite really think? Over the past two weeks, we surveyed 74 Beltway insiders-37 Democrats, 37 Republicans-on the election, the state of politics, and what comes next. We wanted honesty, so we offered to keep their answers anonymous (in some cases, they allowed us to quote them). Among the respondents: Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom and Obama adman Jim Margolis; Kerry right-hand Bob Shrum and McCain consigliere Mark Salter; former senators Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Tom Daschle (D-N.D.).

1. Who’s going to win?

Obama  82%

Romney  18%

22. Regardless of your ideology or party, who do you think would make the stronger leader?

Obama  57%

Romney  43%

23. Regardless of your ideology or party, who would keep the world safer?

Obama  57%

Romney  43%

24. Regardless of your ideology or party, who would be better at fixing the economy?

Obama  51%

Romney  49%

The Politirati Poll

If this signals a trend, expect a lot more fact checking of Romney/Ryan in the media and more newspaper endorsements of Obama by rags that favored McCain  in 2008.

Update. Here’s a fourth from a NYT editorial re the consequences of a Romney/Ryan Administration:

We do not need to guess about the brutal consequences of overturning Roe. We know from our own country’s pre-Roe history and from the experience around the world. Women desperate to end a pregnancy would find a way to do so. Well-to-do women living in places where abortion is illegal would travel to other states where it is legal to obtain the procedure. Women lacking the resources would either be forced by the government and politicians to go through with an unwanted or risky pregnancy, attempt to self-abort or turn to an illegal – and potentially unsafe – provider for help. Women’s health, privacy and equality would suffer. Some women would die.

If Roe v. Wade Goes


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 28 Comments

28 comments

  1. janicket

    If the Establishment does want Obama re-elected, they’d better get cracking at undermining their Great White Hope; there isn’t much time left.

  2. virginislandsguy

    First Debate grades

    (forum means straight debate vs town hall fit, media setup means their bias for horse-race purposes)

    Obama – C for minus energy, engagement, forum, moderator, media setup

    Romney – A for plus energy, forum, alpha male, shameless lying, moderator and media setup

    Second Debate

    Obama – A- for plus energy, engagement, forum, media setup, possible minus for moderator and response Benghazi coverup

    Romney – B- for minus forum, failed fake empathy, lack of practice, media setup, possible plus for moderator

    Steve Deace, the conservative radio host who appears on Rachel Maddow show made the following comment (rough transcription):

    I’ve observed Mitt over the years in these venues. In straight-up debates, he’s very good due to them being highly structured and it lending itself to study and practice.

    But in town-hall debates, he’s like the guy who comes to a party wearing a sweater vest and trying to get everyone to play Yahtzee.

    The compressed schedule of 13 days, then 6 days between debates works against Romney. He can’t adequately prepare for an unstructured town hall particularly due to heavy campaigning in Ohio. The two main wild-cards is how the Pres. handles Benghazi and whether Crowley has a GOP tilt.

  3. HappyinVT

    based on what would happen should Romney/Ryan win.  Like what happens to all those who have healthcare insurance if Obamacare gets rolled back?  What happens to seniors should Medicare/Social Security get “revamped?”  Kaiser Foundation reports 77% of Florida seniors will pay more for their health care (interesting that they break out several states).

    What the hell does “revenue neutral tax cuts” mean?  If you cut taxes by 20% and close the loopholes (which ones?????) and I end up paying the same amount in taxes what have you done, exactly?

    What happens should DADT get reinstated somehow?

    What happens if Planned Parenthood gets defunded?

    We and the media talk about this stuff in the abstract but there are real people behind these ideas.  What happens to them?  I guess the answer includes bootstraps.

  5. Shaun Appleby

    Read it, here is a compelling feature on what is at stake in this election:


    I have a different conclusion: Obama does have a plan to break the legislative impasse and settle the long-term struggle over the scope of government. It does not rest on the GOP’s coming to its senses and thinking of the national good. The plan is the very opposite of naive. And he can put it into effect even more quickly than Romney could enact his own plan.

    Here is how it will happen. On the morning of November 7, a reelected President Obama will do … nothing. For the next 53 days, nothing. And then, on January 1, 2013, we will all awake to a different, substantially more liberal country. The Bush tax cuts will have disappeared, restoring Clinton-era tax rates and flooding government coffers with revenue to fund its current operations for years to come. The military will be facing dire budget cuts that shake the military-industrial complex to its core. It will be a real-world approximation of the old liberal bumper-sticker fantasy in which schools have all the money they require and the Pentagon needs to hold a bake sale.

    Jonathon Chait – November 7th New York 14 Oct 12

    Well worth a read; scary and exhilarating all at once.  We must win this election for the presidency.  It is truly a defining moment in American history.

  6. Peter Jukes

    But what you say about the bane of Bain is, IMHO, of vital long term historic importance.

    Somehow, in the last three decades, we’ve been convinced that asset price inflation, corporate raiding, leveraged buyouts, and the other derivative paraphrenalia of speculative finance are the same as entrepreneurship, free markets and fair competition.

    Now it turns out they were not free or competitive, but worked through cartels and monopoly practices, lowering average incomes and inducing a massive transfer of money from the middle classes to the super-rich.

    That’s the stark choice that Romney and Bain represent: true, Obama hasn’t fleshed out a full alternative after 30 years of this stuff – but he’s beginning to

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