Along the way, many people have remarked that Mitt Romney looks like he came direct from Central Casting to play a President. Though they were talking about Romney’s appearance, they may have also nailed the entire Mitt Romney candidacy, that of the performance of someone who is an actor (albeit a poor one in a community theater production of “Wicked”), playing the role of someone he isn’t…namely, a viable candidate.

It is unashamed gall that Mitt Romney and his campaign display in concocting one asinine excuse after the other as to why he is justified in withholding critical information about himself from the public. Clearly, the subtext here is that they are willing to take the damage from appearing as defiant and secretive than what would be worse, letting the public know who Mitt Romney really is.

The key excuse Romney gives for cloaking so much of who he is and what he would do as President is that the Democrats and voters would “use it against him”. So the twisted logic is, “By hiding who I am from Americans, I can do all the specific things I never told you I would do once elected President.”

There are some generic boasts he’s made about what he will do but killing “Obamacare”, bloating up the military, removing all regulations on polluters, and Wall Street and cutting taxes on the wealthy are just touching the expected Right Wing bases and highly questionable about being able to accomplish whether Democrats would retain the Senate majority or filibuster if they become the minority.

The simple logic is of course, if Romney was planning on doing things that the majority of voters would approve of, he would tell them. The few generalities we do know about his plans all have to do with making the wealthy wealthier and more independently powerful at the expense of the rest of Americans. He only blathers on about moronic, pie in the sky magic tricks he will perform, creating millions of jobs, making everyone wealthy, saving education, reducing the deficit, discovering bacon that actually makes you lose weight, all without the details that would be necessary to accomplish many of these sometimes conflicting miracles.

And as to how he sees things as a human being, that is classified information that he obviously feels would not help his chances in winning.

Not that Romney’s primary directive is a mystery, he is an egocentric, greedy man who simply wants to possess the presidency and hasn’t hesitated to flip, flop, lie, pander and contradict himself in the most blatant ways to get there. A democratic campaign to him is a necessary evil (democracy is such an annoyance to people accustomed to being able to buy everything they want when they want it) that an Entitled One like himself must stoop to and view as an insult, openly showing spite towards the process of explaining to voters what he wants to do…as if they have any right to know that! He wants to be President and that should be all he needs to tell them! Okay, he’ll promise them ponies and free hamburgers for life if it gets him elected but insisting that he tells the public who he really is and what he really would do as President is an intrusion on his privacy.

Despite the meme that some on the Left take comfort in, Romney is not just an empty suit, there is someone there…who desperately wants to remain hidden from the American People.

This alone should be very disconcerting to a anyone considering voting for him, whether affirmatively or as a way of showing dissatisfaction with President Obama. Why is this man working so hard and so willing to hurt his campaign in order to hide who he really is? And what kind of man with what kind of character would seek the Presidency feeling that the public has no right to know who he is or what specific decisions he’ll make if elected?

The camouflage shelter he has built around his true identity, beliefs and his financial history and entanglements is pretty encompassing. The things Romney is hiding include most things critical to Americans’ understanding of a candidate. Those who have been following the race closely enough have have a good idea of key areas he’s cloaking in secrecy and Romney’s blunders along the way have helped expose some of who he is.

WHAT ROMNEY IS HIDING FROM AMERICANS

His Finances

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW:
Romney is hiding his tax returns which would tell us how patriotic he truly is or how unsupportive he is of our American system. It would not only be a very honest reflection of who he has been but would let Americans know what predatory policies he has financially supported in foreign countries and how he would personally profit from decisions he and his administration would make. Hiding all of this from Americans is like playing blackjack in Vegas and only letting the dealer look at your cards to tell you if you won or The House did. There couldn’t be a greater threat to our nation’s future and democracy than to have someone elected President who has loyalties that conflict with what’s best for Americans.

WHAT WE DO KNOW:
He has lied about his time at Bain Capital to avoid responsibility for destroying American jobs and businesses. He filed SEC papers saying he was the sole owner and manager of a company while simultaneously telling the public that he wasn’t.

He has money invested in off shore companies and horded in off shore bank accounts to avoid his patriotic duty of paying his fair share of taxes.

He has lied to the public in claiming that he has no control over where his blind trust invests or hides his money. It is an indisputable fact that the owners of blind trusts can indeed give instructions as to what investments can and can’t be made by those managing the blind trust. If Romney didn’t want his money hidden away in off shore banks, all he had to do, at any time, was say so.

He has profited greatly from the pillaging and destruction of companies by his company, Bain Capital.

He has no moral or ethical reservation about harming American society in order to personally profit.

His Stand on Social Issues

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW:
Whether it’s illegal immigration, government aid for the poor or women’s rights, Romney pandered to the Right Wing and Tea Party throughout the primary to take harsh and insulting stands against a majority of Americans. Now that the Etch-A-Sketch season has arrived in the post-primary months, Romney has magically declared that up may in fact be down and hot could sometimes cold. In other words, his description of his stands on social issues are as flexible as a Mitt Romney shaped pipe cleaner.

One of his favorite dodges is to support right wing positions on federal protections but claim he’s doing so because states should have the right to make those decisions.

Though all of these positions are completely in conflict with his record as Governor in MA, he supports overturning the ACA, overturning Roe v. Wade, preventing LGBT Americans from getting married and declaring war on illegal immigrants and their children.

Is there anything more dangerous than a man with no long term moral convictions on social issues sitting in the most powerful office in America?

WHAT WE DO KNOW:
Romney has exhibited elitism and prejudice both directly and passively. He happily campaigns on the superiority of the top 1% and their entitlement to greater wealth and power. In his international trip this past week, he has offended millions around the world by “being himself” and espousing superiority of himself and “cultures” that he views as closer to his. He has refused to dispute racist claims and attacks by fellow Republicans in every instance.

Is Romney a racist? It would not be a difficult case to make when one considers his race-baiting performance in the GOP primary nor his attacks on Obama as “foreign”. Raised in the virtually all-white Mormon Church which had racism as a part of their dogma at the time (more on this below), it is not a huge leap to make. When one sees how Romney conducts himself around Americans who are black, Latino, etc., the high degree of unnatural pleasantness and uncomfortable glances, it is hard to make the case that Romney sees those of color as peers.

Then how would a President Romney perform when it came to civil rights for minorities? Rights for gays? Rights for women? These questions seem unfortunately easy to answer.

His Loyalties:

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW:
Would Mitt Romney profit personally if overall American employment dropped while Chinese employment rose? Would the gains by any other countries, even some that are adversarial towards the U.S., represent a financial benefit to Mitt Romney?

Is there any issue or position that is too extreme or too far Right for Romney not to support if it meant being in conflict with the GOP base?

Would Romney take America into an unnecessary war that would greatly profit him both financially and politically with his base?

If he can get elected without informing the public about who he really is and what he’s really done in his life, if hundreds of millions of dollars from a a small minority of the nation, Wall Street and the wealthy through SuperPACS can elect him President, will he owe loyalty to the majority of Americans or this minority?

How does he reconcile his absolute faith in the exclusionary Mormon religion and the requirement of Americans to have a President that represents everyone?

This religious issue has been deemed off limits by many on the Right and the Left but I would suggest that the convicted religious beliefs of a human being are very critical to understanding who they are and how they view their fellow human beings, what could be more critical to assessing a person who could have great power over your life?

The Mormon Church has a history of misogyny, child abuse, racism and vicious intolerance for dissent. This is not to say that because one is a Mormon, one necessarily has any of these traits embedded in them. However, it would be a politically correct exercise in denialism to insist that this is wholly irrelevant to who Mitt Romney is and what kind of President he would be.

But there’s more to Romney’s religion than the theological side. As Joanna Brooks, who writes frequently on Mormonism, argues so persuasively, “It is important for readers to know that Romney developed his leadership style in a non-democratic, patriarchal, hierarchical church culture where he rarely encountered open challenge.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57456730-503544/where-is-mitt-romneys-faith/

Some things to consider about how being raised as a Mormon could have impacted who Mitt Romney really is and why he hides who he is:

It was not until 1978 that the Mormon Church finally changed their dogma that black people were black because they were cursed “by Cain’s seed” and because of that, were deserving of racism and prejudice. By that year, Mitt Romney was already 31 years old and had been raised in and grew up in a church that promoted such racism.

He has also been a part of a Mormon Church that has baptized dead people of other faiths against their families’ will, shuns people and separates them from their families for leaving the church and has a spy organization to track, pursue and attack those who speak out against the church.

The Mormon Church’s Strengthening Church Members Committee which is said to include ex-CIA members, “strengthens church members” by having a threatening, totalitarian type unit that performs surveillance on its membership with the mandate to help The Church move against those who dare to question or oppose any aspect of the Mormon Church.

The materialism of the Mormon Church is no secret. To remain in the church, one is required to donate 10% of their earnings or be excommunicated. The Mormon Church’s net worth exceeds $30 billion and many church operated businesses. So, you won’t find one of Jesus’ central themes of wealth bringing corruption in Mormon sermons.

Surrounded by all of this, especially the exclusive, materialistic and vindictive aspects of the Mormon Church, what kind of personality results in someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth such as Mitt Romney?

Wealth-obsessed, a sense of superiority and entitlement, prejudice, condescension and disrespect towards non-whites and those of other beliefs, chauvinism, authoritarianism…is the character of the church he grew up in and is devoted to, irrelevant or influential to the character of Mitt Romney?

It seems to be unlikely that the real Mitt Romney will ever be willingly shared with the American public. Instead, the gamble is that Americans can be stampeded away from President Obama so intensely that they would blindly run in the opposite direction even if it means they run right off a cliff.

It takes a great deal of cynicism about the American people and an almost unimaginable amount of money to take such a route but that is the path Romney has chosen to get to the White House.

Will a majority of Americans vote for a man in hiding to become their president? Precedent and a preponderance of polls in Swing States argue that won’t be the case. The impact of SuperPACs could have an effect on that but it is far from assured.

The Right Wing attacked President Obama in his first Presidential campaign in 2008 and once again in this campaign for re-election as being a possible Manchurian Candidate, someone who deceived the public to get into the White House in order to serve anti-American interests.

The irony is that Mitt Romney seems not only to be from Central Casting in appearance for the role of president, his stonewalling against revealing who he really is and what he’d really do as President makes him also look like he’s the one who’s actually auditioning for the lead role of The Manchurian Candidate.

76
Leave a Comment

Please Login to comment
13 Comment threads
63 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
10 Comment authors
2belindaMurphTheSurf3KQµårk 死神cyrano1AdLib Recent comment authors
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
KQµårk 死神
Member

I love how the MSM fools like Mark Halprin look at this election. They think if Romney just performs well in the convention and debates that Romney will win. They forget people vote for people not performances. I guess he thinks Americans are so stupid that if Romney performs a few circus tricks without having a vision or being transparent that all will be forgiven.

Again I warn Obama supporters that many Americans are as brain dead as Halprin. You can already see that his ilk is going to play the expectations game during the debates and as long as Romney doesn’t have a huge gaffe they will say he won. The MSM wants this election to be close and will do everything they can to make it so.

2belinda
Member
2belinda

I have been out of the US for nearly a year, and largely out of internet-touch. Returning and playing catch-up in the news, it began to seem that far too many had truly lost the ability to think critically and arrive at a reasonable conclusion. And then saving my favorite for last, I came to POV and behold all the intelligentsia are right here. Whew!

KQµårk 死神
Member

Great to have you back 2 belinda.

2belinda
Member
2belinda

thank you. it’s good to be back.

MurphTheSurf3
Editor

The Right Wing Case Against Obama

1. For the corporatists, Obama represents fiscal and regulatory policy they oppose.

2. For the social conservatives, Obama has supported the liberalization of laws and practices that recognize LGBT equality, access to the full range of reproductive services, and health care reform.

3. For the nativists, Obama stands for the browning of America- the passing away of white dominance.

4. For the religious fundamentalists, Obama embraces a branch of Protestant Christianity emphasizing contextual interpretation of Scripture, churches in line with the time, and the centrality the social justice agenda.

5. For the militarists, Obama is developing alternative military strategies that downplay the Big Military, nation invading, profile.

6. For the crazies, Obama is the prop in a long term liberal conspiracy that has placed a non-citizen, radical, Muslim in the Oval Office.

FOR THESE GROUPS “ANYONE BUT OBAMA” (AND HIS DEMOCRATIC ALLIES, EVEN THE LUKEWARM ONES) IS HOLY WRIT.

They will look past every concern you raise by saying: The only thing we have to know about Mitt is that he is opposed to everything Obama is for AND he will take orders.

They are zealous in their beliefs and will do whatever it takes to “set the country on the RIGHT path.”

One of my ongoing fears is that there is not a corresponding zeal on the Left. The “Independents”? The unconnected, the unengaged, the uninformed, are so easily swayed by propaganda and so unwilling to really dig into anything will decide the elections, a source of great discomfort for me.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Agreed the weak minded swing voters tend to sail the political winds. I’m just not so sure they would follow such negative political winds. There simply is no positivity in the GOPTEA cause or the Romney campaign that can attract swing voters. For the most part Obama supporters are still positive. They like most of the change Obama and the Dems were able to achieve and know the GOP will go backwards.

I think there is a bit of apathy on the purist left but those people don’t vote reliably anyway. From what I can see the Dems’ real base is fired up about Obama and some of this is starting to flow down to down ballot races. Also don’t discount that the left has built up a pretty good hate for Romney as well because of the way he lies about Obama and has shown disdain for the working class and poor.

Questinia
Member

There’s no “there” there.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Yeah AdLib you are right. Romney is definitely a toaster.

Courtesy of ABL’s website.

KQµårk 死神
Member

The Romney campaign is such a friggin’ disaster. So now Romney has hired Michele Davis who is a PR consultant that defended BP after the spill with Hillary Rosen to resuscitate his image. She was also worked for Paulson and was a top regulator at Fannie Mae from 2002-2006 which would make the right wingers’ heads collectively spin IF she worked for Obama.

cyrano1
Member
cyrano1

Watched that on Rachel tonight! Too funny!

SueInCa
Member

According to someone on Twitter tonight Dana Bash said she could back up Reid’s statement. I have been trying to get the video but it has not been released yet.

Here is the word from Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/02/1116216/-CNN-s-Dana-Bash-Her-source-can-confirm-Reid-tax-allegation

cyrano1
Member
cyrano1

Sure hope so! Jon Stewart’s reaming him out was pretty ugly. Happy, though that he continued by airing Fox’s outraged reaction and then turned it all back on Fox by a video flurry of their silly unsubstantiated pronouncements.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Wow excellent summary of the most opaque presidential candidate in modern history.

Romney had the nerve to say Reid needs to come out and name the source from Bain that told him Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. For fucksake you’ve got to be kidding me. Romney need only release his tax returns to prove Reid wrong. But that’s the way Romney views the world. Everyone else is wrong but he’s right because he says so.

But as bad as the opaque campaign is no doubt a Romney presidency would be worse. His obsession with secrecy would make him a modern tricky Dick.

Carmen
Member
Carmen

Very well said, Adlib! Logical and sane. I shudder to think of what this country would be like with such a man as Mitt Rmoney in charge.

Questinia
Member

Mitt Romney is a Quinn-Martin production from the 70’s.

SueInCa
Member

Questinia

I have not heard that in years, how funny.

Questinia
Member

I SO look forward to the debates.

SueInCa
Member

You and I both. My thought is Obama will give that little chuckle and drive mitt into a frenzy. Knowledge alone will prove the difference.

cyrano1
Member
cyrano1

I keep picturing Romney being “prepped” for the debates by being outfitted with teensy remote listening devices and puppet strings.

Kalima
Admin

The only reason I can think of for Romney’s continued silence is that the man is such a flake that he doesn’t have any answers or hold any solid opinions of his own. Yet he goes on a trip abroad, and manages to royally piss off the Brits, moves on to Israel where he insults the Palestinians, and lastly drops off in Poland where he further angers the Polish unions and talks about a “cold war” with a country that no longer exists as if he has just woken up from a deep sleep. While in Poland, a Romney aide tells the press to “Kiss my ass”. Wow, this from a man who wants to be president of the U.S.? His campaign advisors must be telling him to shut up in case he fluffs his lines again. I’ve lost count of the number of people and countries he’s offended since he became a candidate, thank goodness he is just not that important for the international stage.

I’m angered, but lately more saddened and bewildered when I think of the people who still intend to vote for this empty shell in November. The sadness comes from the knowledge that some would rather vote for hate than vote for reason for a man who will take them back in time and strip them of most of their rights. It’s hard to believe that those 8 years of Bush are already forgotten, and some are holding out their plates like Oliver Twist for more hardships, more rich people becoming richer, more wars and another inevitable decline in foreign relations. It’s also hard for me to come to terms with the fact that the dumb would wish to become even dumber, and that they view an election as they would a sport, with their team winning at any cost no matter that they lose in the end anyway, is as always mind boggling.

I’ve always had high hopes for America, and still believe that under Obama guidance, life will improve further, and already has improved for so many. Keep the faith that eyes continue to be opened, and that Romney fizzles like a damp firework before November.

I think that his continued silence on policy and important issues will come back to haunt him soon enough.

Btw Adlib, the image with Romney’s silly “Royal wave” and the seat belt that looks like a “toddler’s harness” in his stretch limo, just cracked me up considering where he just made his huge “Royal F-up”. 😆 Great article.

SueInCa
Member

Kalima

I sure hope you are right. I will fight for Obama all the way through to the election and I hope people wise up prior to November 6. BTW isn’t it pretty difficult to piss of a Brit? All the ones I know are friendly and very funny people. I have a droll sense of humor as do the friends I know.

Kalima
Admin

Hi Sue. I lived in the U.K. for many years growing up, so yes, it is pretty hard to piss off the Brits, they usually show their “stiff upper lip”, or make jokes at their own expense, and have a great sense of humour. Romney’s callous remarks about our Olympics, after the recent problems with security there, was highly insulting, and because they view him as a “nobody”, even more so.

PBO will win, but maybe not by the landslide I was so hoping for. Still, four more years is four more years of change and a better life for your citizens, so a landslide isn’t that important anymore.

SueInCa
Member

Hi Kalima

I hope you are right. But you know the uncertainty is precisely why we went ahead and bought another house. If the worst should happen, no one can take it away from us.

I just cannot imagine another neo-con Bush rejects administration.

Kalima
Admin

Buying the house was a great move Sue, and no, they can’t take it away from you. When do you move in?

Maybe because I see things from a distance, my perspective is to see the whole picture of this election year, and quite honestly, as much as the PACs are throwing money in, and as much as some say they are undecided (unbelievable), I think that there will be more things about Romney coming out, things that just can’t be ignored by sticking their heads in the sand, and it will spell the “death throes” for Mitt and his clueless campaign because it has no substance to begin with. For me, Romney is like an elaborately built sandcastle that will be washed away by the tide of truth come November.

SueInCa
Member

Kalima

We move in next Thursday. That is why I have not been around alot. Lots of last minute stuff and packing, oh my word the packing!

Kalima
Admin

I feel for you Sue. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve moved, and of course the most difficult one was this one, half way across the world. We have moved three times since we came here, and now we have our own house, this is where we will stay unless we leave the country, because moving again would literally kill me.

All the best, I’ll be thinking of you and hoping it goes smoothly. Soon it will be over and you can enjoy your new home.

cyrano1
Member
cyrano1

And what we REALLY need along with an Obama win is a congress with enough real dems in it (not those blue dogs) so we can actually move beyond gridlock.

Kalima
Admin

Hello cyrano, I agree that a huge shake-up is in order. Sometimes watching the lackluster participation of many in Congress, especially in an election year, I wish for younger, more involved and less out of touch politicians, not just for the U.S. but maybe across the globe. We all need new blood, and people with new ideas who can’t be bought. The world would be a much better place I’m sure.

SueInCa
Member

Adlib

Great piece and very detailed. I was over at Politicus this morning and I raised the spector of racism due to his long time in the Church under the “cain’s seed” order(or whatever they call it) and the fact he sat in that church for precisely 31 years under an umbrella of racism. I further question George Romney. He claimed that he was not prejudiced and I think he did quite a bit to prove it yet he also sat in church services same as Mitt and never raised objection. It is beyond explanation same as they crucified Obama for sitting in Rev Wright’s church. Personally I get what Wright was talking about but it is way above the understanding of a RWNJ.

Thanks for this it has really given me some good ideas about how to approach people who are supporting him. Excellent job

KillgoreTrout
Member

Some excellent questions AdLib. Important ones that people should be asking. I know the far right base will not even consider asking such questions, but let’s hope upon hope that independents will ask them.

I am a little leery about bringing a candidates faith into the larger picture, but you are right, it could be very revealing, especially if the candidate takes his/her faith seriously. I would love to see a secular president one of these days. I doubt I will see one in my life time though. Americans are just too hung up on religion.

Here’s a video from Bill Maher’s doc, “Religulous,” on Mormonism;

SueInCa
Member

KT
I thought that Maher’s movie was very tastefully done. He could have gotten carried away with the snark but he kept it to a dull roar. The fact I agree with him for the most part may have also had something to do with my three thumbs up 🙂

KillgoreTrout
Member

I agree. This scene about Mormonism is very revealing, as to how crazy some of their beliefs are and how they ostracize anybody who stops buying into their “religion.”

SueInCa
Member

I will have to open it with IE as my Mozilla does not show the scene.