The Commentariat -- August 24, 2012
Catherine Rampell of the New York Times: "Americans nearing retirement age have suffered disproportionately after the financial crisis: along with the declining value of their homes, which were intended to cushion their final years, their incomes have fallen sharply. The typical household income for people age 55 to 64 years old is almost 10 percent less in today's dollars than it was when the recovery officially began three years ago...."
Travis Waldron of Think Progress: "The middle class is shrinking, and so is its share of America's income and wage growth, according to a new study released Thursday. The study from the Pew Research Center found that the middle class -- defined as Americans with incomes between $39,000 and $118,000 -- fell backward in income for the first time since the end of World War II, and the number of Americans who fit into that category shrunk from 61 percent in 1971 to just 51 percent in 2011.... The 'lost decade' for the middle class corresponds to declining tax rates for the wealthy and a growth in corporate profits. In the last 12 years, incomes for the wealthiest 400 Americans quadrupled even as their tax rates were halved, and executive compensation has grown 127 times faster over the last three decades than worker pay, one study found."
Matt Miller in the Washington Post: the real Medicare villains? Inefficient healthcare providers.
CW: meant to link this yesterday; forgot. Linda Greenhouse on the status of free speech. "... maybe it's time to stop looking for free-speech consistency and to acknowledge that most justices are no different from most of us. We all love the First Amendment -- when it suits us."
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "... residents of Ilion, [New York,] a community whose history and economy are indelibly linked to one of America’s more celebrated gunmakers, are starting to worry about Remington's future. The recent mass shootings at a screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' in Colorado and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin have galvanized advocates of tougher gun laws in Albany, and Remington has made it clear that such laws could prompt it to leave New York for a more sympathetic state." CW Memo to dimwitted Remington execs: if you know how to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, you know how to manufacture other things, too. Why not retool for peace?
Presidential Race
Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Plans are underway for Mr. Romney to be nominated on Monday -- not Wednesday as previously thought -- because of a potential threat from Tropical Storm Isaac and concerns about a possible disruption during the roll call vote from Ron Paul supporters at the Republican National Convention next week."
Secret Mitt, Ctd. Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "Denver TV reporter Shaun Boyd wanted to ask Mitt Romney about Todd Akin and the abortion controversy roiling the GOP Thursday. But the Romney campaign refused. In a broadcast on Thursday, Boyd revealed the Romney campaign's demand that she not ask about Akin.... Boyd told TPM that the Romney campaign offered her station an interview with Romney.... A campaign staffer whose name she didn't divulge told her what questions she wasn't allowed to ask.... Back in May, Romney snapped at Boyd when she asked about medical marijuana -- an issue before Colorado voters in November -- and gay marriage. She reported that dust-up with Team Romney on the air at the time, too." With video. ...
... CW: Okay, so Romney says attacks on his business career should be off the table, he almost never talks about his stint as governor, he has yet to release even one full set of tax returns & he & Lady Romney insist you people won't get access to more than two, he seldom talks about his religious beliefs or his work as a Mormon bishop, most important -- he won't reveal many of his policy proposals till after the election, and now reporters can't ask him about topical subjects. Mitt is not running for president; he's running for absolute dictator, and he is running as a dictator.
The Onion. Emily Friedman of ABC News: "Mitt Romney said Thursday night that big businesses are 'doing fine,' using similar language that the presumptive nominee has hammered President Obama for using to describe the private sector earlier this year.... Romney then added that the reason that big businesses are 'doing fine in many places' is because they are able to invest their money in 'tax havens.'" CW: Since Romney likes firing people, the campaign should fire the special valet responsible for dislodging Willard's foot from his mouth. ...
... "The Bain Files. Inside Mitt Romney's Tax-Dodging Caymen Schemes." John Cook of Gawker: "Gawker has obtained a massive cache of confidential financial documents that shed a great deal of light on those finances, and on the tax-dodging tricks available to the hyper-rich that he has used to keep his effective tax rate at roughly 13% over the last decade." Gawker has made the 950 pages of documents available online & is inviting analysis & commentary. ...
... ** Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "As part of his retirement agreement with Bain, Mr. Romney has remained a passive investor in the company's ventures and continues to receive a share of the firm's investment profits on some deals undertaken after his departure.... The documents also reveal that Bain held stakes in highly complex Wall Street financial instruments, including equity swaps, credit default swaps and collateralized loan obligations.... Bain private equity funds in which the Romney family's trusts are invested appear to have used an aggressive tax approach, which some tax lawyers believe is not legal, to save Bain partners more than $200 million in income taxes and more than $20 million in Medicare taxes."
... Matthew Mosk & Emily Friedman of ABC News: "The private equity firm founded by ... Mitt Romney made use of arcane techniques in several of its Cayman Islands-based funds to avoid U.S. taxes, according to a trove of Bain Capital's private audit and finance records made public on the website Gawker [Thursday]. The audited financial statements of one of the Cayman Islands funds make note of the use of 'blocker' entities, which are used to help retirement accounts and nonprofit entities avoid some taxes. Financial statements for another fund note that it 'intends to conduct its operations so it will … not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax....'" ...
... Richard Adams of the Guardian: Mitt Romney's assets are so broad-based "it's almost as if Romney needs to make a financial disclaimer for every policy position he takes." CW: Of course, he won't. Ethics are just not his thing.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Willard tells how his years at Bain taught him how to be an excellent president. I'm sure some of you could help him revise it to make his pitch a tad more honest.
Fellow Robber Barons, I promise you a New Gilded Age. Eric Lipton & Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "By proposing to end a century of federal control over oil and gas drilling and coal mining on government lands, Mitt Romney is making a bid for anti-Washington voters in key Western states while dangling the promise of a big reward to major campaign supporters from the energy industry."
Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "... Mitt Romney said Thursday his plan to provide health insurance to everyone in Massachusetts was superior to the one it inspired, President Barack Obama's much-debated national law."
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "A colorful team of advertising gurus -- including a onetime 'Wheel of Fortune' contestant, a guy nicknamed for a 'Super Mario' character and a burly Texan who came up with the 'Beef, it's what's for dinner' slogan -- have converged on the campaign's drab headquarters [in Boston] to dream up the ads they hope will propel Romney to the White House." CW: they call themselves "Mad Men." But anyone who would try to sell Mitt Romney can't even measure up to Don Draper's dubious moral standards.
Paul Krugman on Ayn Rand aficionado Paul Ryan: "In pushing for draconian cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and other programs that aid the needy, Mr. Ryan isn't just looking for ways to save money. He's also, quite explicitly, trying to make life harder for the poor -- for their own good.... very much in line with Rand's worship of the successful and contempt for 'moochers.'" Ryan also bases his views on monetary policy on a speech by a character is Atlas Shrugged who "denounces the notion of paper money and demands a return to gold coins. For the record, the U.S. currency supply has consisted overwhelmingly of paper money, not gold and silver coins, since the early 1800s.... So ... Mr. Ryan ... wants to turn the clock back not one but two centuries.... Mr. Ryan is considered the modern G.O.P.’s big thinker. What does it say about the party when its intellectual leader evidently gets his ideas largely from deeply unrealistic fantasy novels?" ...
... Obviously, Krugman gets his inspiration from the comics. Thanks to contributor Platteville Walt for the link. Daily Kos publishes Tom Tomorrow's strips:
Melissa Boteach of the Center for American Progress lays out the ways Romney/Ryan would undermine the welfare-to-work program by drastically cutting programs on which the working poor rely. In the meantime, of course, they have employed the diversionary tactic of falsely accusing Obama of "gutting" the work requirement of the law. Here's a handy chart:
Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Republicans have adopted a party platform on immigration that would require employers nationwide to verify workers' legal status and deny federal financing to universities that allow illegal immigrant students to enroll at lower in-state tuition rates.... The party's platform stance comes as Mitt Romney has been moving to court Hispanic voters before the general election.... Recently, Mr. Romney has sought to soften his stance, saying he would consider a Dream Act for illegal immigrants who serve in the military.The party platform offers no support for that proposal."
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Mitt Romney unveiled an energy plan Thursday that he said would make North America energy independent by 2020.... His plan would allow states more control over the development of energy resources on federal lands within their borders, as well as aggressively expand offshore oil and gas drilling -- including along the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas -- as part of a broader effort to reach energy independence.... Mr. Romney has raised considerable money from donors with ties to the oil industry."
Peter Orszag in the Washington Post exposes 5 myths about Paul Ryan's budget, beginning with "If you take out everything Ryan is assuming and look at his concrete proposals, his budget is not fiscally conservative. Without the magical reductions in Medicaid, other spending and tax breaks, his plan would expand the deficit in 2040, not reduce it." CW: something weird about the Post's publication of Orszag's opinion piece: in one iteration (here), it begins with these remarks:
I've worked closely with Rep. Paul Ryan. He's an honest and amiable guy. In part because of his winning personality, Ryan ... has convinced many in Washington that his budget blueprint is a serious proposal for solving our long-term fiscal problems. Unfortunately, it’s not....
... But in the for-print iteration, which I linked above, this preamble is missing.
Fraud Squad, the Portrait. Found this over in Right Wing World while checking out a site that uses some of my stuff. A screenshot of a video, the image struck me as a study in made-for-TV fakery: Mitt and his sidekick all dressed up in their "regular people" disguises complete with frozen-friendly grimaces, poised in front of a Murican flag for an extra dose of "authenticity." Maybe their real selves -- if they have real selves -- are behind that blue curtain.
Susan Saulny & Christine Haughney of the New York Times profile Janna Ryan, Paul Ryan's wife.
AND Contributor Marvin Schwalb passes along these hilarious "Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews." Cursor through & pass 'em on. ...
** PLUS this Harvard Law School Revue (I spelled that right) article -- complete with footnotes -- by one Baroque Yo Mama is the real deal. Read it.
Congressional Races
Rasmussen Reports: "Embattled Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has now jumped to a 10-point lead over her Republican challenger, Congressman Todd Akin, in Missouri's U.S. Senate race. Most Missouri Republicans want Akin to quit the race while most Missouri Democrats want him to stay." CW: Rasmussen, a Republican pollster, isn't particularly reliable. ...
... Ed Kilgore of Washington Monthly: "Given the very well-documented pro-GOP 'house effect' of Rasmussen polls, some will wonder if ol' Scott [Rasmussen] put a thumb on the scales for Claire." ...
... Nate Silver: "My view is that the Rasmussen Reports poll represents a more-realistic portrayal of the race as it stands now" than does the Public Policy poll, conducted 48 hours earlier, which showed Akin with a one-point lead over McCaskill. ...
... Alexander Burns of Politico: "Todd Akin hasn't had many high-profile supporters with him in the trenches this week, but Mike Huckabee became an important and emphatic exception Thursday afternoon, sending a message to his own supporters that accuses Republican elites of trying to drum a good man out of a winnable Senate race." ...
... David Graham of The Atlantic: Huckabee's "jab at the RNC is especially pointed. That's because Huckabee is scheduled for a primetime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, with a 7 p.m. address on Monday in Tampa. And he's one of the most well-liked figures in the GOP, a friendly, affable guy with a wide reach (through radio and TV) and almost unparalleled cachet among Christian conservatives, meaning he's nearly untouchable.
E. J. Dionne provides a transcript of part of his interview with Elizabeth Warren. Topics: the Affordable Care Act & the application of her religious beliefs.
Right Wing World
"The Crackpot Caucus." Tim Egan: "On matters of basic science and peer-reviewed knowledge, from evolution to climate change to elementary fiscal math, many Republicans in power cling to a level of ignorance that would get their ears boxed even in a medieval classroom. Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers." Egan provides a brief rundown of some of the most prominent ignoramuses in Congress.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Daryl Hine, an admired poet who adhered to classical themes, complicated formal structures and intricate rhyming patterns to explore themes of philosophy, history and his own sexuality, died on Monday in Evanston, Ill. He was 76."
New York Times: "Apple won a decisive victory on Friday in a lawsuit against Samsung, a verdict that will give Apple ammunition in a far-flung patent war with its global competitors in the smartphone business.... That is not a big financial blow to Samsung, one of the world's largest electronics companies. But the decision could essentially force Samsung and other smartphone makers to redesign their products to be less Apple-like, or risk further legal defeats."
New York Times: "China is moving ahead with the development of a new and more capable generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles, increasing its existing ability to deliver nuclear warheads to the United States and to overwhelm missile defense systems, military analysts said this week."
New York Times: "Several people were shot, one of them fatally, by a gunman outside the Empire State Building shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday, according to the police and city officials. The gunman was killed by the police, officials said."
New York Times: "A volley of American drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt early Friday killed at least 18 people, security officials said, marking a sharp escalation of the controversial C.I.A.-led campaign that continues to roil relations with Pakistan."
New York Times: "A court on Friday sentenced Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who admitted killing 77 people, to at least 21 years in prison after ruling that he was sane when he carried out his country's worst peacetime atrocity. The sentence was the most severe permitted under Norwegian law, but it can be extended at a later date if he is still deemed to be a danger to society."
Washington Post: "Scores of mutilated, bloodied bodies have been found dumped on the streets and on waste ground on the outskirts of Damascus in recent days, apparently the victims of a surge of extrajudicial killings by Syrian security forces seeking to drive rebel fighters out of the capital and its suburbs."
New York Times: "International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may also be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings."
iCrooks. AP: "South Korea's Samsung won a home court ruling in its global smartphone battle against Apple on Friday when judges in Seoul said the company didn't copy the look and feel of the U.S. company's iPhone, and that Apple infringed on Samsung's wireless technology. However, in a split decision on patents, the panel also said Samsung violated Apple technology behind the bounce-back feature when scrolling on touch screens, and ordered both sides to pay limited damages."
Share Article
Reader Comments (17)
Frank Deford in his biography "over time" quotes the late Joe Palmer's description of a race track character.
He, "has a great respect for the truth and uses it sparingly"
Fits Willard to a T, or "spot on" as they say.
Romney's secrecy is no secret. Why hasn't the MSM dogged reports on his possible ethics violations while governor, or funneling no bid contracts to his cronies while "saving" the olympics?
Maybe because there's no paper trail:
http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/08/02/mitt-romney-campaign-faults-obama-aide-for-personal-email-use/xSaxsa2Fw1LrICdDuxbBmJ/story.html
Tim Egan's column says everything that is wrong with America, but I disagree with one statement. "Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers." No, the people who elect them are the incubators. They are in fact true representatives of their districts.
I thought his cartoon from Tom Tomorrow was accurate and telling. Both Rand and Ryan are recipients of the benefits of Social Security that she objected to and he is trying to destroy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/20/1121624/-Haunted-by-his-muse
A friend posted this on Facebook. Yiddish curses for Republican Jews.
http://www.yiddishcursesforrepublicanjews.com/
It doesn't just apply to Jews.
" So ... Mr. Ryan ... wants to turn the clock back not one but two centuries.... Mr. Ryan is considered the modern G.O.P.’s big thinker. What does it say about the party when its intellectual leader evidently gets his ideas largely from deeply unrealistic fantasy novels?" Asks Krugman.What indeed! We had, not too long ago, a leader––although intellectual would be a stretch––who got many of his ideas from the sliver screen––the whole Star Wars fiasco was based on a Sci-fi film––this man actually believed he experienced certain scenarios when in reality it was a part he'd played in a film. I agree with Marvin: the people who elect these legless leaders are the one's to blame if blame is the game here.
I can't seem to get Akhilleus' description of Romney as having a "mini-woody" out of my mind. Fits the image of Barbie's Ken–-a male doll without a package, looking good, but having nothing to say.
Re: The dim lightbulb in my head. Ak has mentioned this in the past but the thought just popped into my head. It's much easier to pass a religious studies course than a organic chemistry course. It's easier to be a person of faith than a person of science. It is easier to fake faith than fake science. Worse, faith attracts the simple and the gullible and uses those attributes against them.So if faith is elected you end up with what we got in congress today.
Re: Really cute baby in a leather legal case satchel. I did not think much about Ms. Slaughter's cover story in last months "Atlantic" but her reply to the letters to the editor was right on the money and touches on the topics we have been discussing here.
So now Mitt Romney is proposing to give control of drilling on Federal lands to the respective states. According to the New York Times article linked above, this is a typical Republican response :
“We love it,” said Ally Isom, a deputy chief of staff to Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, a Republican. “We understand better than Washington how to better manage our lands. We actually live here.”
There is just one little problem with this view: it's not state land, it' owned by ALL OF US.
Republicans don't seem to get simple facts - no wonder complex areas such as science are too much for them.
Also, Romney's assertion that he advocates this change to speed up the permitting process, because state governments are more "efficient," is laughable and disingenuous. Sure the Feds are slower - they don't just rubber stamp every application, but actually scrutinize them.
Well, well, isn't this special.
Just imagine, Fox News doing something traitorous to promote its own nefarious ends.
A heretofore anonymous (for good reasons) former member of Seal Team 6, the unit that tracked and killed Osama Bin Laden, has written a book about that operation. It was supposed to be released under a pseudonym on September 11. But for reasons that are still unclear but very likely involve the party and race of the US President who ordered that raid, Fox "News" has outed this person.
Yup, good 'ol red, white, and blue Fox has disclosed the identity of this former seal for....well, for what? The good of the country? The country's need to know? When have these things ever mattered to Fox?
But, a-ha, what does matter is any way they can embarrass or disrupt the president. Somehow right-wingers, if this Navy Seal is threatened, attacked, or killed by crazy Jihadists, now that Fox has revealed his name and whereabouts, will blame President Obama.
Is this the height of treachery? Can you imagine them doing this if the successful raid had been ordered by a white Republican? Can you believe that anyone would be so low as to out someone working in a sensitive position for national security? Has anyone ever done such a thing?
Oh wait. They did. Darth Cheney outed a CIA operative which placed her, her family, and all her former associates in deadly peril. Why?
Revenge and politics.
I guess in Right Wing World that's not considered treason.
That's considered business as usual for anyone not rich, white, and far right. Same with Fox. If you aren't on their side, watch out. They'll shiv you in the back to make a buck or score political points. Fox shows the depths to which they'll sink to hammer home the point that they are disreputable, unethical, immoral, vengeful rat bastards.
Way to go Rupert. You've demonstrated yet again the value of getting your American citizenship. Since becoming a US citizen (fast-tracked by Reagan), you have blessed your adopted homeland with the spurious, two year nightmare of impeaching a president, supported two stolen presidential elections, whipped up hatred against a country which had nothing to do with 9/11 in a run up to a ginned up war--no, two wars, divided the country on issues too numerous to count, trumpeted racism, ignorance, religious fundamentalism, and conducted wars on women, minorities, Democrats and have no problem outing former military personnel as long as it serves the greater financial and political agendas of News Corp.
Now be a good boy and go the fuck back to Australia. Screw with them for a change.
Paul Ryan's problems with Philosophy.
Fraud Ryan has lately been hopping around like a one legged hooker on payday trying to keep from being pinned down to any of his former very clearly stated positions. No one is going to make him accountable for things he’s sworn to in the past, whether 10 years ago or last week. No sirree Bob. Boy, that Romney sure is a good tutor in all the best ways to lie your way out of difficult corners. Rape? Akin? I never! Why that’s ridiculous. Tax returns? You have all you need. Ayn Rand. Who is that again? I never said that. My hero is, er, ah…..oh yeah, Thomas Aquinas.
Ryan, after being apprised of Rand's virulent atheism, now claims that he bases his epistemology (wonder who taught him that word?) on Aquinas.
Really? Okay. Let’s test that assertion. And while we’re at it, we can see just how radical and how much of a fraud and liar this guy really is.
We can do this quickly because even though I’ve read Thomas Aquinas it’s a lead pipe cinch that Ryan never has. If he had (and if he understood any of it) he would never have picked him out of a hat for his latest choice as philosopher of the month.
In a nutshell, Aquinas bases his theory of justice on a society in which the greatest good is the common good. Laws exist, in Aquinas’ thinking, to support a just and equal society. All members are to share in this justice. Sound like Ryan’s world view?
Okay, what about stacking up the coin? In a Thomistic world, owning private property is not illegal (this was out of the box thinking during Aquinas’ day when Catholic social structures were predominantly communitarian. This was also long before the Church began its rage of acquisitions). But in Aquinas’ thinking, accumulation of possessions is moderated by a sense of proportionality, a very big deal for Thomas. Also, anyone in possession of things (food, shelter, clothing, supplies, etc) whose needs had been met was expected to help others less well off. Sound like Ryan yet? Or Romney? Stop that! Stop that! No snickering til we’re through.
And in case Ryan thinks about running off to jump on the Edmund Burke bandwagon, like most dimwit conservatives have who have also never read a word he wrote, Burke, no stranger to Thomist thinking, theorized along Aquinas’ lines that individuals have a duty to a society and to social structures and projects that existed before that individual was born and will, or should, continue after they pass on. This means that we are all obliged to care each about the other and to strive for, as Aquinas suggests, the common good.
Still doesn't sound like Ryan?
Well, I won’t go on at length here although there is a treasure trove of philosophical writings in Aquinas’ oeuvre that give the lie to any proclaimed connections between that famous Scholastic and the Fraud known as Paul Ryan. These guys think they can just say whatever the hell pops into their little noggins and there won’t be anyone around who can question them.
Sorry boys. There are these little things called books. Remember those things?
Anyway, apart from Thomist philosophy, one of the primary pillars of Catholic teaching is the requirement for social justice; for taking care of the poor, the downtrodden. And the American Bishops said as much when they slapped Ryan across the knuckles after reading his plan to disenfranchise and bury those poor and downtrodden; to downtrod their asses even further. But that’s about all it was. A rap on the knuckles. But it does indicate the extreme distance between what Ryan claims as his philosophical demesne and what it really is.
It’s not all about abortion, fucking knucklehead.
In fact, both R&R, besides being a Rat and a Fraud, are extreme radicals. They hearken back to no respectable ethical or moral philosophy that I can determine (Objectivism is fantasy wanking, not philosophy). They are all about avarice and power. Their ideology is one of personal greed and the unquestioned sovereignty of the individual (at least rich individuals). Everyone else, look out for yourselves.
Ayn Rand might love it (we know Romney does), but Aquinas would never recognize himself in anything Ryan has said or done.
Here endeth the lesson.
Marvin,
Love those curses. My favorite is the one related to Mormons baptizing Jews after they die. Funny stuff.
@Akhilleus - Aquinas might recognize a few aspects of himself in R&R. St. Thomas defended auto da fey for heretics, both as an example and as a referral to the court of final judgment (i.e. even though the ecclesiastical court could not forgive a heretic, after the secular authority burned the heretic, God might forgive him/her in heavenly judgment.) And such thinking could help in selecting Supreme Court nominees (if we let God sort it all out, we can be less discriminate in our judgments.)
Patrick,
Quite so. Even though we can ascribe to Aquinas the mantle of rationalism as brought forward from Aristotelian antiquity, he was still a creature of his age. That burning of heretics thing might make a big comeback should fundamentalist Republicans stage a takeover. Figures that would be the one thing they'd take away from Aquinas' teachings.
Then again, Isaac Newton believed in alchemy but I'm guessing most subsequent subscribers to Newtonian Mechanics left that in the closet where it belongs.
@Marvin
Great! ... the Yiddish 'curse' of constipation as a pre-existing condition!
Think of how many Republicans would be denied coverage. This could be the solution to Medicare underfunding!
Everybody take the Pew/PBS NewsHour poll about your political leaning?
http://www.people-press.org/political-party-quiz/
Whoa! I'm so far to the left that I'm practically off the chart on that Pew quiz.
"Okay, so Romney says attacks on his business career should be off the table, he almost never talks about his stint as governor, he has yet to release even one full set of tax returns & he & Lady Romney insist you people won't get access to more than two, he seldom talks about his religious beliefs or his work as a Mormon bishop, most important -- he won't reveal many of his policy proposals till after the election, and now reporters can't ask him about topical subjects. Mitt is not running for president; he's running for absolute dictator, and he is running as a dictator." @Marie, I quoted and credited you today on my facebook page and so many people liked this comment and shared it! This is exactly the angle the Dems should be taking.