Willard Mitt Romney:

(Part One in a Two Part Series on the 2012 Presidential Election)

After surviving a contentious GOP Primary Campaign that saw everyone from Donald Trump, to Herman Cain, to Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich named as the heir apparent to the conservative throne of Presidential nominee, in the end it was Mittens, the guy President Obama had expected from the jump.

When all of the contenders, except maybe Ron Paul, were vanquished into the corn field, Romney emerged as the standard bearer for the austerity based financial model that defines today’s GOP.

The only governor to successfully implement the public healthcare model that recently became known as “Obamacare,” Romney has distanced himself from that success at the urging of his party.

Patient Zero of a Rom-nesia outbreak that has made him a viable candidate, Mittens has admittedly shaken his campaign like an etch-a- sketch and then re-set the direction of his run at least four times since the summer.

Where change may be problem for most politicians, it became a strength for the chameleon-like Romney, a former venture capitalist of whom the iconic figure of Gordon Gekko of Wall Street fame was allegedly based.

 

•  Name: Willard Mitt Romney
•  Born:    March 12, 1947
•  Running Mate:  U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wisc.)
•  Slogan: Believe in America/Keep America   American/Real Change/A Better America
•  Occupation: Candidate for President 2008 – present
•  Education: BYU (undergrad)/Harvard (Law and MBA)
•  Titles/Office: Olympics Pres. 2002/Governor Massachusetts 2003
• *My Favorite 60’s or 70’s Pop Song of Description: “Bend Me Shape Me”

The Book of Mormon

Mitten’s legacy actually began long ago and far, far away in Mexico.

Although related to British 18^th Century portrait painter George Romney, Mitt is the great grandson of original Mormon apostle Parley Pratt. Pratt’s son, Mitten’s grandfather, Helaman Pratt, presided over the Mormon mission in Mexico City.

The Pratt’s were polygamous Mormons who fled the United States for Mexico to escape prosecution for polygamy.

Romney’s parents, Gakell Romney and Anna Pratt were natives of Utah who married in Mexico in 1895. Mitt’s Dad, George, was born in 1907. The Romney’s practiced monogamy among polygamist factions of the religion, after polygamy was abolished by Mormons by way of the 1890 Manifesto outlawing the practice.

So, Mitten’s old man, George Romney was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907, but was declared an American. The Romney’s were forced from Mexico and back to America in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution.

George Romney attended Latter-Day Saints University in Salt Lake City, Utah in the 20’s and as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland.

After another stretch in school, this time at the University of Utah, George worked in DC as a tariff specialist after following his father-in-law, Harold Lafount, who was appointe4d to the Federal Radio Commission by President Calvin Coolidge. George Romney worked with Democratic US Senator David Walsh from during 1929 and 1930.

From 1932-1938 George Romney was the Washington rep for the Aluminum Wares Association.

In 1939 he became the Detroit manager for Automobile Manufacturers Association and later chief spokesman for the auto industry during World War II.

From 1954 to 1962 he was president, chairman of the board and general manager for American Motors Corporation, where he was said to have helped popularize compact cars in America. In 1962 he was elected as Governor of the state of Michigan, a post he held until 1969.

In that year he was named at Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, by his former competitor for the Republican nomination for President – Richard Nixon. He served as HUD Secretary until 1973.

Ironically, Romney, who was born in Mexico, was allowed to run for President from 1967-1968. I wonder if he was pressured to show his long-form birth certificate – somehow I’m guessing the answer was – “Not so much.”

Mitt Romney is part of the growing American political trend that seems to promote the interests of professional politicians, who unlike their predecessors, rarely earn their stripes through years of service. These new hacks are usually independently wealthy and raging against the machine or the off-spring or relative of an Old School politician.

Mittens is a direct bi-product of the later. He was born in 1947 to an early mover in shaker in Michigan. His father, George, was AMC motor’s president, the Governor of Michigan and eventually ran for President against Richard Nixon and lost. Mom was an eventual US Senate candidate Lenore Romney. As was mentioned, he is also the great grandchild of one of the 12 apostles who were inspired to create the Mormon religion.

Mitt Romney was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and was groomed for success at the prestigious Cranbrook School. He matriculated to college and attended Stanford University for a year, before fulfilling a religious mission to France from 1966 to 1968.

He attended Brigham Young University in 1969, where he met and married his wife, Ann. He graduated BYU in 1971. Romney later attended both Harvard Law School and the Harvard Business School, receiving graduate degrees in law and business in 1975.

Romney joined the Boston Consulting Group and later Bain & Company, a Boston financial management company in 1977. Seven years later Romney left Bain & Company to formed Bain Capital a private equity investment firm.

As for his time at Bain, Romney led the company to specialize in the “leveraged buyout,” (i.e. LBOs).

A simple definition of what Romney’s firm did was seen in the mob movie Good Fella’s. Do you remember the scene when they took over the club?

The club owner sold the club to the crew. They charged all the goods they could on credit and sold it again for a cut rate until all of the credit was gone? Once the business is tapped and they can’t get any more credit, you torch the place and collect on the insurance money.

After a decade of “harvesting” and improving troubled companies, Romney decided to pursue his new venture – politics.

In 1994, Romney ran an unsuccessful campaign for the US Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy.  Five years later he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympics in Utah. Mitt turned the troubled games around and led to the successful 2002 Winter Olympics.

Success in Utah led to yet another parlay into politics, this time in 2003, in Massachusetts when Romney captured the governship.

During his one term as Governor of Massachusetts, Romney successfully reduced a $3 billion budget deficit, created public healthcare that largely served as the model for President Obama’s Universal Health Care, but

The ambitious Romney, then declined running for a second gubernatorial term and instead in 2008 ran against Arizona Senator John McCain for the GOP nomination for U.S. President. One hundred million dollars later, Romney lost to McCain, who ultimately lost to President Barack Obama.

Romney officially began his campaign for President in New Hampshire in June of 2011.

Curiously, as the GOP primaries began, the only person who believed Romney would win the Republican nomination was President Obama himself.

In June 2011, it was Texas Congressman Ron Paul who won the Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll; in August Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann won the Ames Straw poll in Iowa. In September of 2011 Godfather’s Pizza owner and former radio host Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll and NJ Governor Chris Christie spurred reports that he would run for President.

In November 2011 it was Herman “Black Walnut” Cain with a win in the Sioux Falls Straw Poll and Newt Gingrich won the Delaware State committee straw poll in December of 2011. No one won the January Iowa Republican caucuses, with Romney, Paul and Rick Santorum gaining no clear number of delegates.

It wasn’t until January of 2012, that Romney won the New Hampshire Republican primary and began his path to the Republican presidential nomination. After winning the next caucus in Nevada, Mitt experienced a bit of a scare from Rick “Frothy the Ass Clown” Santorum, who won caucuses in the Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado.  However, with a Frothy campaign suspension by Santorum in April, the Mitt-ster became the clear favorite.

While, voters seemed to never appeared to fully embrace Romney until about six-months out, the ever changing campaign sloganed Mitt, kept his supporters on their respective toes by masterfully adopting different points on crucial topics and therefore pleasing everyone.

For instance in June of 2011 he said he personally believed the world was experiencing climate change and called for a reduction in our emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases. However, faster than you could say, “psych your mind Frankenstein,” Romney changed directions just five months later. He said he didn’t know what was causing climate change and spending trillions upon trillions on the reduction of carbon emission was “not the right course.”

Months later, Romney really got with the GOP – “Drill, baby, Drill,” philosophy and unveiled his plans to make North America independent of foreign oil imports within 10 years. The expansion of drilling off the shores of Virginia, the Carolinas and in a restricted area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be topped off by giving states a greater ability to pursue drilling on federal lands within their borders and give a thumbs up to the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, which has been under review for environmental concerns.

Another change came with his planned treatment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Romney indicated, during his campaign in 2012, that the handling of disasters should also be given over to the states. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney was quoted as saying.

I guess he missed the memo that most states, especially those run by Republican governors, are cutting state jobs and have been doing so for at least the last four year. No worries, he did an about face after Super Storm Sandy smashed into the eastern seaboard, killing 100 people and leaving millions homeless.

His campaign released a statement that promised, “As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission.”

Romney’s best about face came from a statement he made before donors in Florida that famously had him categorize 47 percent of Americans as victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, and who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”  The comment, which was secretly taped and released by liberal magazine Mother Jones in September of 2012, closed with the presidential candidate stating: “my job is not to worry about those people.”

Although such a divisive statement seemed to present a clear view of how Richie Rich sees almost half of the country, “presto chango” it didn’t. During the first Presidential debate Mittens changed his mind again and now magically cares about 100 percent of all Americans – Whoo hoo!!!

Giving rise to a new saying:  “If you stand for everything, you may get elected president,” Romney cruised into November with a slight lead over President Obama, despite pretty much marginalizing all the people who are supporting him.

Conception after rape is God’s will.

Sounds ridiculous – right?

Not to U.S. senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock, who trotted out this gem during his run in Indiana and still managed to keep Mitt’s support and that of all of the ladies in and outside of Mitten’s binders.

Evidently everything went so right for Mitt in just seven months, that there wasn’t even a need to see his tax returns for the last decade or even question his opposition for the Affordable Care Act, which was modeled after his “Romneycare” universal healthcare plan in Massachusetts.

We’ll just take his word for it. I’m sure it’s strong like oak.

Don’t Ride The White Horse

Although no one is allowed to discuss Mittens’ tax returns, the guy who died in his car in France, his time with Bain Capital especially in the case of Staples or his religious beliefs, it is ironically, a controversial mythical belief that may have a segment of Romney supporters hoping for a victory by the GOP.

It has been said the Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith gave a “White Horse Prophecy in 1843 that foretold of the rising of an America that turns to Mormon leadership when the US Constitution is almost destroyed.  The prophecy said of the Constitution “You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber…. I love the Constitution; it was made by the inspiration of God; and it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse.”

The prophecy was later interpreted to mean that the American people will go to this Mormon leader to essentially ride in on a White Horse and save the country.

Ironically, both Mitt and his father George Romney, could have been perceived as this mythical leader, with the elder Romney seeking office in 1968 and Willard Mitt seeking office now, at a time when many on the Right believe President Obama is destroying the US Constitution. Both Romney’s have dismissed the viability of the prophecy and/or that they are perceived as this alleged mythical leader.

In the end, some see the look of a family man when they see Mittens, someone they can trust. For me, I just see the vacant stare of a political socio-path who will do anything and say anything to trump the legacy of his Daddy. Sound familiar?

Unlike the balls to the wall George W. Bush, who was too arrogant to care how what he said impacted the average American. Romney appears to be incapable of thinking the average person should have a say. To make it worse, he seems to lie so much that he isn’t even capable of separating fact from fiction.

A detached robot like Romney, who is programmed by wealthy businessmen and their special interests, should never be leader of the Free World. Such a corporate shill will never answer to the American people he hopes to rule.