Newt Gave Up on America

Newt Gingrich gave up on America when he shut down the government in 1995.  A great country would not give up and quit.  I'm still mad because it affected me directly.  First, while I was assigned to the American Embassy in Warsaw to run the Maria Sklodowska Curie fund, named in honor Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, the Republicans stopped funding it after two or three years, although we had signed a agreement with Poland to fund it for five years.  A great country would honor its promises.  So, don't count on the Republicans, especially Newt, to honor any promises, whether to pay interest on the national debt, make Social Security payments, or pay soldiers' salaries. 

I was in the process of transferring from Poland to Italy at the State Department's request when Newt shut the government down.  The US Embassy in Rome furloughed me, along with most employees, but it left me with no place to live.  All my worldly possessions were in storage or in my car getting ready to leave Warsaw for Rome in one hour when they called and said, "Don't leave."  But my wife and I had no place to stay in Warsaw.  It worked out, but no thanks to Newt.  The government should not send people to foreign countries and then abandon them.  Newt is totally irresponsible.  The idea that he might be President is deeply disturbing. 

Romney and Jobs

Most of the debate about whether Romney created jobs at Bain Capital misses the point.  Of course, businesses succeed and fail.  Some jobs will be created, some eliminated.  The questions is whether Romney cared about jobs, or just about maximizing profits.  For example, if it cost Bain $1,000 to keep a job that paid $25,000 to some long-term employee, would Romney do it?  That question has not been asked, but I think the answer is no.  That is a legitimate position, a purely Darwinian capitalist view.  But do you want the government to approach the jobs issue the same way?  I don't think so.  The government should take a more humanitarian approach to jobs.  And businesses could, too. 

In some cases, businesses fail because the men who started them don't have the heart to fire people who have been with them for years, although the company's hard times require it.  The Mitt Romneys of the world can come in and do it because they are heartless.  And they end up preserving some jobs, just not all of them. 

But what is Romneys view of the importance of jobs versus profits?  We don't know, and probably never will, because Romney seems to have no permanent views on anything. 

I think Romney's income taxes may be revealing, if he releases them.  He probably benefitted from all the tax breaks for rich people, particularly those in investment activities, that the lobbyists have gotten passed over the years, thanks to huge donations from rich people.  They can afford huge payments to lobbyists and campaign contributions to politicians, because the resulting tax breaks save them obscene amounts of money.  I'm guessing Mitt benefited enormously.  It will be even worse if it turns out that he is hiding income by putting assets in the Cayman Islands, or some other tax haven. 

Obama Abandons Democratic Party

Obama's proposal to break up the Commerce Department is just another example of his kowtowing to the Republicans and abandoning Democratic party ideals.  Government needs reorganization, but breaking up a long existing cabinet department is not the way to start.  The Republicans probably want him to eliminate EPA or Education, and he thinks it is smart to hit Commerce instead, but it's still a recipe for disaster.  The Department of Homeland Security has been a disaster.  The country is no safer than when the agencies in Homeland Security were under different cabinet departments, but it has been a great financial boon for private contractors, most of whom have Congress under their thumb through their lobbyists and campaign contributions.  It's government welfare for rich contractors. 

Obama is a worthless coward.  People make a big deal of his approving the raid on Osama bin Laden and continued drone strikes, but in both cases he was just saying yes to hardliners in the military and intelligence communities.  Closing Guantanamo would take guts, and he won't do it, because he doesn't have the guts.  Elizabeth Warren makes him look like a little crybaby.  It's no wonder he didn't want her anywhere near him; the comparison is devastating. 

Republican Primary as Reality Show

The Republican primaries are basically a reality show.  The candidates are more like the housewives of Orange County than commanders in chief.  That’s why somebody who was just promoting a book, Herman Cain, came to be one of the leading contenders, if only for a few weeks  The debates and campaign speeches have been in general uneducated and banal, except for Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman, who have espoused reasonable positions, although I may not agree with them.  I think Ron Paul is wrong in his opposition to the Fed, but he is right that we are in serious economic trouble.  I think Huntsman is right on most important issues -- economic and foreign policy -- but too conservative on social issues like abortion and gun rights.  But Romney is campaigning as if he were a California housewife.  He may be the most intelligent housewife, but just a housewife nevertheless.  The others -- Santorum, Gingrich, Perry -- are good at puffery, but just full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.  Republican voters are not voting for a commander in chief but just on who is going to be voted off the island.