Are you guys "budget guys" so to speak

[Rob's House]

Can you really and truly say you are voting FOR Mitt Romney without saying/thinking/knowing that you're really voting against Obama? Is there enough substance in Romney's bank of experiences, in his ability to comment off-the-cuff on matters of world import, to begin to justify casting a vote for him?

 

Of course, one can swap the names around in the above paragraph and be just as challenged.

 

Simply put, the choice in November just plain sux.

If you're a hard-core conservative Romney has some problems. If you're an "independent" or moderate Republican he's exactly what you've been asking for. I started a thread asking what the knock on Romney was & got nothing of substance. So no offense, but when I hear stuff like this I roll my eyes.

[DC Tom]

Can you really and truly say you are voting FOR Mitt Romney without saying/thinking/knowing that you're really voting against Obama? Is there enough substance in Romney's bank of experiences, in his ability to comment off-the-cuff on matters of world import, to begin to justify casting a vote for him?

 

Of course, one can swap the names around in the above paragraph and be just as challenged.

 

Simply put, the choice in November just plain sux.

 

His ability to comment off-the-cuff on matters of world import?

 

Improvisational skills? That's vital?

[WorldTraveller]

This isn't really a fluff piece, but none the less it illustrates some of Mitt's strengths when he was working with the Salt Lake City Olympic games. Sort of baffling to me that there hasn't been many articles or television stories that talked up his tremendous success. You would think that if the media truly wanted to vet the candidates, that they wouldn't be only chasing the negative hit pieces, but would seek and report some of his successes as well.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-olympics-20120727-1,0,2043111.story

 

 

 

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney wanted to send a message when he took over as chief executive of the Salt Lake Olympic Games. So he moved the organization's Washington office from a well-appointed K Street law firm to a barren third-floor walk-up, wedged between a burrito shop and hair salon near the U.S. Capitol.

 

It was furnished with broken desks cast off by federal agencies. Its stairs were so steep that Cindy Gillespie, the head of federal relations for the Olympic committee, refused to have guests visit.

 

"It was a nightmare — I couldn't stand it," Gillespie recalled. "But Mitt just adored it. He thought it was totally appropriate."

 

The message, of course, was that frugality was the new watchword of the organization, which had been battered by revelations that Salt Lake officials had showered more than $1 million in gifts on International Olympic Committee members in their effort to land the 2002 Winter Games.

 

Scaling down the Washington office was one of the many moves that Romney made to wipe out the scars of profligate spending. Recruited in February 1999 to take over the beleaguered Olympic committee, Romney deferred his $280,000-a-year salary until the Games were over and its finances secure, then donated it to charity. (He had taken a leave from Bain Capital, but was still receiving substantial payments from it.) He got rid of catered food for board meetings and instead offered pizza at $1 a slice.

 

Romney frequently touts his success running the Olympics as an example of his strength as a chief executive. The experience also demonstrated his skills as an agile politician — one who touted the committee's new frugality and deftly parried questions about the role the Mormon Church would play in putting on the Games.

 

For some of those who worked with him then, it is an image at odds with what they've seen emerging from the 2012 campaign.

 

"The Mitt on the campaign trail is not the Mitt I knew as the leader of the Olympics," said Randy Dryer, a Democratic lawyer who served on the 53-member Salt Lake Olympic Committee board of trustees. "I chuckle when I hear news reports about Mitt being stiff and standoffish and having handlers who insulate him. He was accessible, he was personable, he was inclusive."

 

Former Democratic Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, who is now running his own independent presidential bid, agreed: "It surprised me that during the course of this campaign that he's come off so out-of-touch and rather aloof; that's not the guy I ever dealt with."

 

The contrast speaks to how much in his element Romney felt as he worked to right the Games — an experience that propelled him into a successful run for governor of Massachusetts and his bids for the presidency — and to the inevitable constraints on a candidate waging a hard-fought national campaign.

 

"The difference is between someone who is day-to-day running something and someone who is out literally campaigning for a job," Gillespie said. "He's not one of those slap-you-on-the-back politicians. What he is is a leader."

 

Others argue that the path was smoothed for Romney's success at the Games.

 

"The Olympics was a controlled environment," said Ken Bullock, a member of the board who was one of Romney's few vocal critics. "Everyone wanted the Games to be successful. No one really challenged him."

 

From the start, Romney was cast by Salt Lake leaders as the "white knight" who would put the Olympics back on track. The scandal had deeply demoralized the local staff and threatened to sour sponsors as the committee sought to raise the final $400 million needed to meet its original $1.45 billion budget.

 

Romney demonstrated a canny understanding of how to maximize his role as Mr. Fix-It.

 

"One of the masterful things Mitt did early on was that he lowered everyone's expectations," Dryer said, noting that Romney regularly joked that Salt Lake's Olympic caldron was on track to be a Weber grill.

 

When it came to sorting out the organization's complex finances, he did it "the Bain way," said Fraser Bullock, a former Bain Capital partner whom Romney persuaded to come aboard as chief operating officer. "He went through the budget, line by line."

 

Once fully versed in the committee's finances, Romney sought to win over wary public officials with a barrage of information. Washington lawmakers he met with were subjected to "a 40-page PowerPoint," Gillespie recalled. "He was treating them like executives."

 

The tactic worked, she said: "They respected him and knew he wasn't hiding anything."

 

Romney frequently cited the committee's transparency in an effort to bolster its image. As part of a reform effort that began before his hiring, board meetings were opened to the public and a reading room was created where lists of vendor contracts and top donors could be perused.

 

 

 

 

 

There's another page to read, gotta click the link

[meazza]

There's another page to read, gotta click the link

 

The comments in that article say it all. People are idiots.

[jjamie12]

so sell me on Mitt Romney

I'll re-post this again, then:

 

Mitt Romney has DEMONSTRATED great Executive (read: Leadership) qualities in:

 

*Fixing* bankrupt or near-bankrupt entities in the Private Sector.

*Fixing* the near-bankrupt and rudderless entity of the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Executive of a large, complex Public Sector entity as Gov. of Massachusetts.

Proven ability to work across party lines to get things done (see above, as Gov. of Mass.)

 

It seems to me that what this country needs is someone who understands, intimately, how governmental regulation, tax policy, and budgeting decisions affect the small, medium, and large business in this country. It seems to me that, right now, we need someone who has demonstrated an ability to work WITH the other side of the aisle to achieve things.

 

Mitt Romney has spent decades fixing messes, be they political, public or private.

We're in a mess.

Mitt Romney may not be the only guy who can fix this, but he's the only guy in THIS race who can.

[dayman]

FYI I have been reading most posts so just b/c I don't respond doesn't mean I didn't read or listen to the various points for Romney.

 

 

We're in a mess.

 

 

 

Reminds me of this promo haha (zach galifianakis platform). "Washington DC is a mess. Things are a mess, IT'S A MESS"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSIX9q_rqB8

Edited July 27, 2012 by TheNewBills

[DC Tom]

FYI I have been reading most posts so just b/c I don't respond doesn't mean I didn't read or listen to the various points for Romney.

 

 

 

 

Reminds me of this promo haha (zach galifianakis platform). "Washington DC is a mess. Things are a mess, IT'S A MESS"

 

youtube.com/watch?v=MSIX9q_rqB8

 

"Paid for by Americans United in Unity."

[Oxrock]

Appointments to the EPA, DOJ, NLRB, FCC, and more importantly SCOTUS who believe in capitalism as the best and most prosperous economic system ever invented and that the constitution with all it's ammendments limits the power of the federal government.

[B-Man]

According to Jay Carney, W.H press secretary "tax cuts represent spending"

 

Washington Examiner

 

All your business are belong to Obama

 

After Senate Democrats voted to raise taxes on Americans families making more than $250,000 a year this Wednesday, President Obama issued the following statement:

 

"With the Senate’s vote, the House Republicans are now the only people left in Washington holding hostage the middle-class tax cuts for 98% of Americans and nearly every small business owner. The last thing a typical middle class family can afford is a $2,200 tax hike at the beginning of next year. It’s time for House Republicans to drop their demand for another $1 trillion giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and give our families and small businesses the financial security and certainty that they need."

 

The following day, ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper questioned Obama spokesman Jay Carney about the use of the word giveaway:

 

"You used the word “giveaway”, and President Obama, in his statement yesterday, used the word “giveaway,” referring to the extension of the lower Bush tax cut rates for I guess the top 1 or 2 percent of the country — people making over $200,000 a year, or couples making $250,000. What do you say to a small business owner who says, that’s not a giveaway, that’s my money, and by the way, I’m going to need some of that money in order to help pay the health care of individuals that I’m now mandated to do? It’s not giving anything away, it’s allowing me to keep my money."

 

Click over to the White House Transcript for the rest of the exchange between Tapper and Carney. It really is a masterpiece of White House dissembling.

 

Bottom line though, Obama used the word “giveaway” in his tax hike press release for the same reason he told supporters in Roanoke, Virginia that, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” It’s what he believes.

 

If you believe that the federal government is largely responsible for the success of every business, then why shouldn’t it be entitled to take more of what you earn? If the federal government is entitled to what you earn, then of course, letting you keep more of it is a giveaway. How generous of them.

Really we should all just be thanking Obama for letting us keep what property the government doesn’t need right now. Until, of course, it does need that property to build a super-train to nowhere or something..................................................

 

.

[Cinga]

I'll re-post this again, then:

 

Mitt Romney has DEMONSTRATED great Executive (read: Leadership) qualities in:

 

*Fixing* bankrupt or near-bankrupt entities in the Private Sector.

*Fixing* the near-bankrupt and rudderless entity of the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Executive of a large, complex Public Sector entity as Gov. of Massachusetts.

Proven ability to work across party lines to get things done (see above, as Gov. of Mass.)

 

It seems to me that what this country needs is someone who understands, intimately, how governmental regulation, tax policy, and budgeting decisions affect the small, medium, and large business in this country. It seems to me that, right now, we need someone who has demonstrated an ability to work WITH the other side of the aisle to achieve things.

 

Mitt Romney has spent decades fixing messes, be they political, public or private.

We're in a mess.

Mitt Romney may not be the only guy who can fix this, but he's the only guy in THIS race who can.

 

 

But.... but..... Obama has a smart teleprompter and a cute slogan!!! That will trump experience any day of the week.....

 

Sarcasm off