Couple of quick notes:

Willard "Mitt" Romney's "successful career" ended more than a dozen years ago by his own choice, when he jumped at the chance to control the 2002 Winter Olympics. He used this highly-visible position to campaign for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. He served just the one term, announcing way back in December 2005 that he wouldn't seek re-election, but would explore a presidential run. He officially began campaigning for President on 13 February 2007...and has never stopped.

If readers grasp nothing else, they need to recognize that for the past SIXTY months Romney has done nothing but run for President.

Romney's motivation is questionable. You've been convinced "he wants to get this country back on track." Some 60-70% of REPUBLICANS remain unconvinced, and the compelling evidence of Mitt's own flip-flopping and ever-changing policy stands supports a very different conclusion: This is all about Romney's personal ambition. The man will do or say anything to any audience to win, regardless of the myriad contradictions that have resulted.

That's not just me saying that: It reflects statements made by his primary opponents, prominent right-wing bloggers and columnists, Fox News personalities, Republican Party strategists and Tea Party activists across the country.

They do not like Romney -- but most of them dislike Gingrich or Santorum even more, and their fanatical hatred of our President compels them to support Mitt out of necessity.

mitt romney is a big money, pro-establishment candidate who don't give a f about you. don't waste your money. seriously. goldman sachs is giving him millions. he don't need your hard earned $25. with that being said, RON PAUL won the arizona debate hands down, is the only candidate who knows what the hell he's talking about and the only one who can beat obama. polls have him now beating obama in Arizona, Virginia, Iowa, and Ohio.

A man who edits a newspaper editorial to favor himself will bring back pride to America? Pride in WHAT? Our ability to defraud, deceive and demean? That's not the America I want, nor the America you should want if honor and honesty means anything to you. Apparently it doesn't -- so I am glad I now go armed into your midst.

As of yesterday the United States has the highest marginal tax rate for corporations in the industrialized world. When people start to look at hard facts about true tax rates and why people move jobs overseas, then and only then will they understand. Corporations are beholding to the Shareholder and thus they must give them a return on investment. If they stay in America, costs go up, which in turns puts prices up. I have had this discussion to many times and i know just let the facts speak for themselves. Those states that are turning around are the ones who are making business want to do business there. Obama just annouced he wants to cut corporate tax rates to 25%, do you want to know why, for the exact reason Lee and I Both are saying. At the end of the day, no matter what party you live in, its all about the money. But hey why would people think that matters,they all complain about Snyder, yet he has done what no one was willing to do, and put Michigan back on track, with the 7th best place to do business in and is holding every faction accountable. No need to tell me about what he cut, because it is forcing all factions to do what they should have done previously, and it is working.

And lest we forget that Corporations - in the final analysis - do not themselves actually pay tax. All Tax is an expense that is passed on to consumers - all of it. So raising the expense to produces goods and services on US based corps is simply a negative force on US expansion and growth and a serious positive force on imports.

Absolutely agree with you, but do you want workers working in this country or in other countries. All I hear and read is they are moving jobs. Well the way to get them back and have them produce the goods here is to reduce the tax rate to be at or lower than all other industrial nations. It only took Obama three and 1/2 years to finally understand that, and when his election year is coming, coincidental think not. He is one smart politician that can spin a web better than any spider I ever meet. We can not have our cake and eat it too, so we must take the lessor of two evils, and I believe myself, i would like to get the unemployed back to work and get them off of unemployment, get unemployment pay back to 27 weeks, and get our engine moving again. 92 weeks of unemployment is a big fat trillion dollar expense to all of us and for every job brought back to this country reduces our debt that much faster. And yes people this blog is too short for me to go into all the micro and macro aspects, so lets keep it simple. One person out of unemployment equals on average 10,000 out of our debt.

So no other politician does this? I must be living in a dream world.

You know, Lee, Willard "Mitt" Romney was never actually named CEO of any of the companies Bain Capital took over. We have no evidence he ever did payroll or balanced a company's books by himself. You're assigning talents to the man solely on speculation. And even for those companies that survived being controlled by Bain, do you know what percentage of the work was performed by Mitt Romney? He was a partner, after all -- not the sole proprietor.

Now, if your response to that is something along the lines of "Romney was an executive, he delegated all that to others," then I need to call you out on your "Obama fired thousands of auto workers" claim -- as if he personally handed out pink slips. You want to thnk ill of him, OK...we get that. But making completely unsupported accusations that are easily disproven isn't doing your reputation around here much good.

For just one example of how easily your assertions are disproven, go to the very Michigan Dashboard set up by Gov. Rick Snyder's order (http://www.michigan.gov/midashboard). Look at the green "thumbs up" indicators: Click on them to open the detailed data. In almost every case, the last YEAR being measured is 2010 -- Jennifer Granholm's last year in office. Proof that Michigan was turning around BEFORE Rick Snyder was elected!!

Disturbing how? Hell, I'm probably whiter than you are and I wasn't in the least "disturbed" by a video tied to African-American History Month. The message from our President is consistent, regardless of the target audience.

The same cannot be said of Willard "Mitt" Romney, a man Jon Huntsman compared to a weather vane for the many times he shifted positions based on who he was talking to or what office he was seeking. Remember, Romney has been running for President nonstop since February 2007, and has been a politician since 2002 (not to mention his run for U.S. Senate in 1994). Mitt's flip-flops and "nuanced" position shifts are all in the public record, supported by video of the man himself.

If that's the "skill set" you want, then you really must want this country to fail.

[There -- perhaps now you know how it feels when you throw around baseless accusations and ad hominem attacks on others.]

Herb,

Since I am the one who added the word "Disturbing" into the conversation about the video I will share my reason. I see this video as a pander to a particular group making them feel like a victim and the candidate is going to make them "Special" with their power and our money. Vote for me and I will take care of you!

This happens on both sides; I am just as equally "Disturbed" by this type of approach from anyone. I believe we all are "Special" and therefore should be treated equally, we all have the right to a shot at the opportunity with an even playing field. Of course, we have to put in legislation that say we protect the rights of all groups equally, this is to protect, not send checks to these groups.

I also believe we should help those who truly need help. The problem is many play the game, work the system and extract their money from us. This dilutes the money we have available and the truly needy do not get help.

We have countless examples of waste in the government, but no programs to truly make it better, just talk with no action or accountability. When are we going to hold them accountable on how they spend our money?

Daryl – I have to disagree with you on this one. Seriously, it’s a Black History Month ad targeting minority with a history of low engagement and voter turnout. And it’s an election year where by all accounts it will be an incredibly close race.

Any political strategist of ANY candidate (incumbent, black, white, female, whatever) is going to tell their candidate that they have to try to appeal to such minority groups to get the vote out. This particular incumbent happens to be the first Black president, so yeah, he’s going to mention the fact.

I remember W always actively courted the Latino vote that wasn’t a problem for anyone. It’s called being smart, and realistic as a politician. And, I always remember W and Clinton making a pretty big deal of Black History Month to varying success.

Some day, we’ll have the first woman president, first Latino president etc. You don’t think they’ll especially court their own demographic? It’s not about victimhood, but yes, I think it is about making people feel “Special” because politicians want to make everyone think they’re special so they’re vote for them. Like or not, it’s politics, not racism.

I’m not stumping for any candidate, or sticking up for anyone’s policies. It’s just a huge waste of time when we talk about being afraid of race, who’s more Christian, and not believing official birth certificates. It’s simply intended to be divisive, and it is.

Erin,

I hear and understand your points and they are valid, this is Black History Month and this ad is clearly pandering to that particular group. I do not like pandering by anyone regardless of what party they are in or represent. This is where the politicians talk out of both sides of their mouth and I do not trust them. That is why I was disturbed, but that is my view.

I guess I hold the hard line and find pandering offensive and talking down to us as if we are less intelligent then they are. This clearly happens equally on all sides: liberal, conservative, middle, etc.

For me the true measure of a politician is not what they say, it is what they do. I want to see their track record of failures and accomplishments. Most importantly, when they failed what did they do? I do not care about failure, I care about how they recovered and made “lemonade out of lemons”, that is a track record.

Anyone who did anything in life understands that failure happens to anyone, failure is a great teacher, and it is a measure of a person on how they react after a failure. Success is a terrible teacher; it makes people think they are great, arrogance before the fall.

Erin, Michigan is moving so fast in the ranks...based on data from 2010 (the last year available by most measures). So if you want to thank anyone, thank Gov. Jennifer Granholm and President Barack Obama.

Perhaps the 2011 metrics will be even better. Some of them will for sure. But even then, the LAWS on the books in Michigan were those passed in 2010 and before -- most of what the Legislature rammed through last year is only taking effect THIS YEAR, in 2012.

Herb...good thing this is the good ole USA where we can express our opinions freely, unlike much of the world. Most folk are not upset by the name NAACP, But if you, herb, try and form the NAAWP, or NAAAP, you are sure to get some raised eyebrows, perhaps even some opinions, and not positive. When was the last time you remember Obama going to the ghetto and asking them for support?
Hit me with a link....

Regarding Romney, at least we know his history, upbringing, education, etc. How many presidents do you know of who have had their credibility as a 'Born in the USA' person taken to court, and doubted by so many Americans? I am not a 'birther', his birth certificate is probably real, but there are other issues on call that don't involve a birth certificate. This site goes into more detail ?

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1454/078/Finally:_The_United_States_Supreme_Court_Has_Ruled_That_Obama_Is_Ineligible_To_Serve_As_President..html

Probably just baseless accusations, unfortunately , facts keep popping up that have folk wondering.....Now if the supreme court defined a citizen as one born from two US citizens, and we know Obama's Dad was not a citizen, Hmmmmmm
I know, call those folks 'crazy' etc and deflect the issue.....works sometimes.....

Lee - you do know that George Romney (a very good man and straight up politician) ran for president and was born in Mexico. But no objections to the fact he did not actually qualify to be president.
McCain (also a good man and politician) was born in the Panama Canal Zone. No objections there. It was on a base, but for the strict Constitutionalists, that exception is not explicitly specified.
Now we have an actual President who was actually born in Hawaii - that IS an official US State. OK, problem solved.
I hate to repeat myself, but can we get back to jobs and debt now?

Herb – I’ll always cheer a “Yay Michigan” report regardless of who’s claiming credit.

I do understand that Michigan was on an uptick prior to the wave of newbies coming in from 2010 election– riding on the effects of the Auto Bailout as well as a few (certainly not all) of Granholm’s policies. However, I want to give credit to the new MI administration for taking that ball and running with it mostly in the right direction. Clinton came in riding on George H’s policies that were just taking effect and improving the economy. Clinton took that ball and ran with it, and we know that worked out pretty well. It’s all what you do with it.

I also appreciate that Snyder lives in the land of reality and doesn’t deny the leg up Michigan received from the Auto Bailout (not that he endorsed it). He certainly doesn’t take all the credit for Michigan’s unemployment and business atmosphere turnaround, unlike other politicians. I must say it’s disingenuous for a state rep who’s been in for a couple of years to say: “The upward trend can be attributed in large part to the Legislature’s work this year to encourage Michigan job creators to hire again.” (newsletter from Tom McMillin). I think he would do well do take some lessons from Snyder.

Marty,

The fact that he was targeting a specific audience, I guess that was it, not only for Black history month, but for the remainder of the campaign , a specific ethnic group, blacks, to work for him so he can get re-elected would be viewed as racism if done by any of the other white candidates for their race , just substitute the word white for black in his speech and it becomes very 'disturbing'. Obama can do it since he is black and is the president.. The reverse is not true for the other candidates. Race should not be a issue, a playing card, but it obviously is. Everyone is 'tiptoeing around it.

I thought we were all 'Americans'. Not Black Americans, White Americans, Mexican Americans, Polish Americans, you get the picture. If Santorum stated, "we need a level playing field for all white Americans", there would be a great hue and cry. That is what fuels Mr. Jesse Jackson, and of course, Obama's religious teacher for 20 years, The Rev. Wright. The rev Wright apparently has way more that a level playing field compared to most Reverends, with a 10 million dollar home paid for by his church etc, but that is what freedom in America can bring, if you work for it, and have the drive and desire to succeed, such as Rev Wright. I may not agree with his views , but it is hard to argue with his success.......see here.
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/29/obamas-shorebank-jeremiah-wrights-10-million-cash-machine/

Erin,

Like a true upstanding politician, you have side stepped the question, by asking questions of your own. Romney and McCain satisfied the issue of citizenship, and had no issues, your observations are part of the known record, and raise no flags. What is the question? Is Obama a citizen of the USA? Since he was born in Hawaii, part of the USA, and his mom was a citizen, I would say he is a citizen. Others beg to differ.
The real question is whether Obama is doing a good job or not. You mention debt, jobs, both concerns for our country. I say he is not doing a good job, adding more debt than most other presidents combined. Jobs ?? Many folks have given up, are not even on the official unemployment lists anymore, and not counted as a result.
What to do? Get a businessperson in the oval office, reduce taxes, put more money in folks pockets, reduce the corporate tax rate, draw companies back to the USA instead of taxing them away. Gas prices? Doubled since Obama took office.
Why no pipeline from Canada to Texas, when other pipelines have been on the same route for years without problems? 30,000 jobs, not now.......

Lee J. –so I responded to your long comment where you propagate the Birther conspiracy, and then you say that I’m changing the subject? Okaaaay.

You profess “I would say he’s a citizen” yet you fan the flames with your qualifying language of “his birth certificate is PROBABLY real, it’s ” PROBABLY just baseless accusations”. Similarly, some politicians say “if he SAYS he a Christian, “ if he SAYS that’s his real birth certificate” “he SAYS he’s a Constitutional Law professor” –“ I’ll take him at his word”. (Is McCain really the last honorable politician?)

Lee, honestly, half the time I think you’re trying to prove the opposite point by being outrageous, funny and sourcing from the deep end of the internet. I’m still not sure where you’re coming from. If I’ve been unclear in my views, or equivocating in any way, I apologize. Otherwise, I think I will sign off and wish you good luck.

Amen to that. I can't believe the ad I just heard.

More examples:

Florescent bulbs are energy savers and good for the environment. Fact: They do save money in use, not even close to LED lights, but we will give them that. However, the reason they are made in China is because of all of the toxic chemicals put in the bulb, we could not compete with our plants due to environmental issues. Now we have all these bulbs here and one breaks, we need a hazmat team to clean it up. When it finally burns out, we need to dispose of these bulbs very carefully. Are we going to? Where are the environmentalists who want to protect the Earth? Is this deceit?

Solar Panels are the future and we need to invest for this clean energy renewable approach to solve our energy dependence on foreign oil. Fact: The reason we cannot compete with China in making these solar panels is not just low labor costs. The chemicals in the panels themselves are highly toxic and need to be handled very carefully to protect the environment. In China the plants do not comply with our rules and regulations and avoid all of those costs along with cheap labor. Every year these panels degrade in performance and after 8 plus years they hardly put out any energy and need to be replaced. Where do we dispose of these toxic panels? Where are the environmentalists who want to protect the Earth? Is this deceit?

Now we are in my sweet spot, the auto industry.

Electric Cars are the future and Zero Emissions emitting vehicles, we need to invest in them to create this budding industry to solve our energy dependence on foreign oil. Fact: The technology is not there yet, and might never prove out to work to meet our needs. Even with subsidies the public is not purchasing these vehicles as projected and the business continues to be challenged. Set that aside, how do we create electricity? We burn coal and use natural gas generators but these 2 forms are highly regulated and not approved by the environmentalists. Now after 10 years when the battery finally degrades we have to pay over $10K to replace them and now dispose these useless toxic batteries into the environment. Where are the environmentalists who want to protect the Earth? Is this deceit?

Here is an example of “Informed” marketing
There are over 10 million Compressed Natural Gas vehicles driven around the world. We have only 100,000 CNG vehicles here in America, 90% plus of them are fleet vehicles. What does the world see that we do not? Iran has mostly CNG vehicles operating in their country.

CNG vehicles emit 38% less emissions than the current gasoline vehicle. Did you know we have over 100 year supply (if all vehicles ran on CNG) of Natural Gas right here in North America? Did you know that we are finding more and more Natural Gas deposits in North America every month?

I agree with a great deal of what you said.Our very tax systems needs overhaul so we can keep our industries here.Government needs to get better with how they handle our tax dollars.
I believe China will poison itself at the rate it is going.So that is sustainable only for the near future.Letting companies decide how to police themselves, historically has not worked out as evidenced by all the toxic waste sights here in Michigan alone.
I did see a very interesting segment on 60 Minutes this past weekend, here's the link.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml
We need to look forward to meeting our energy needs and not with fracking,clean coal and all the other dirty forms of energy that some people are proposing.Shifting dangerous manufacturing from one country to another is irresponsible on many levels, we're just polluting another corner of the planet.I believe the innovation that we need here and around the world can be done by us.Which must be supported by a educational system that is not for profit but for getting us back to being the global leaders that we were in the past

Lianne,

We have extensively studied many alternative energy approaches from both an engineering and business perspective. We have put together facts, visited the sites, interviewed the executives of the companies and compared them to each other. From this study we drew fact based opinions and compared them to each other for value and see if they were sustainable in the long run.

At our current technology level none of them work, even with the large governmental subsidies. As engineers we all know and understand hard work can develop new technology in the long run and change the assessment. The next step is to choose a few approaches that show promise and invest in them. When I say invest, I am saying do a small targeted program that proves out the next step of development before we continue. If it does not meet the early development criteria, we change direction.

The government has chosen a political path, based on my previous examples, and went full guns on investment to get things going on favorite approaches without proof. They put "our" eggs in a few select baskets based on political decisions, not detailed analysis. This is the wasteful, high risk approach and will not create success. I am challenging us to follow the normal development process with accountability and cancel the approaches that do not show promise early on in the stage.

What is your understanding of Fracking and why is it out of the mix?

Daryl,
Fracking has brought the cost of natural gas supplies down this year and last, however it may be coming with some unintended consequences.There is more studying and debating but potentially,this method might come as too high a price.
Here is just one article of many,
http://www.propublica.org/article/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-to-fracking
It does give one pause when your tap water can power your stove.My concern being that industry does not always police itself properly and not to long ago Ohio was dealing with this very issue.
http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2009/06/cuyahoga_river_fire_40_years_a.html
That being said, what do you think our responsibility extends to as far as damaging or potentially damaging our environment ?What regulations do you think would be appropriate to strike that balance?

Lianne,

These studies show the impact drilling has had in a few cases to the water source. Anytime you drill through the water table to get to the oil and natural gas below them you have to seal the well through the water table correctly. This is an engineering challenge and it is achievable.

All of this gas is already trapped below the water table by a hard rock layer and that is how it is secured. This natural seal works until an earthquake breaks the rock layer and then the gas naturally come through and contaminate the water source.

In sealing the well through the water table they have to put in the natural barrier of hard rock, a special mixture of cement. The engineering approach is using the natural method of securing the gas from the water source. Both the natural and manmade methods can fail, I suggest that if an earthquake breaks the seal in the manmade well it will also break the natural barrier and we still have a problem.

We have 3 players that are a check and balance to the system. Well drillers need to follow the proven methods that create a safe well. Producers need to follow the proven methods and maintenance on the wells to create safe operations. Regulators need to write and enforce the regulations and certify it was done to the standard.

In gulf oil spill we blamed the 2 private companies and never mentioned the government regulators who looked the other way and did not catch the flaws. Where is the regulators accountability?

Daryl,
My question ultimatey is what is the companies moral responsibility to the environment?We can point our fingers at the regulators that hopefully were fired after the BP debacle, but they are monitoring a process that the company is engaged in.
Trade secret law has shields the companies from revealing all of the chemicals that they are injecting in to the wells.The aquifers once polluted are impossible to clean up.These natural wells that are a source of drinking water in land locked areas are forever contaminated.I would also like to mention that there is still some debate going on that the very chemicals being used are also lubricants to the shifting of unstable shale formations that cause the seismic activity.
Ohio's Republican Governor just shut down fracking operations there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/ohio-fracking-earthquakes_n_1182079.html
Oddly enough it was Nixon who consolidated all of the various agency"s that now form the EPA.The article also goes on to state that there is shipping of waste water to other states for disposal.If these wells they rely on for fresh water become forever fouled.Where will these States go for fresh water? My guess is they will be looking north to our Great Lakes.That is why I have been keeping a eye on this method of gas extraction.

Lianne,

Yes I believe the companies are responsible to do the right thing to protect the environment. They have a responsibility to do the right thing and the regulators have a responsibility to tell them the right things to do. The best scenario is when they both work together to write the regulation and then keep an eye on each other to comply.

In my earlier reply in the Gulf oil spill all 3 parties were guilty and should pay a heavy price for doing the wrong things. My point was the governmental regulators got a free pass and I find that to be a big part of the problem.

If we look at the nuclear power industry we have strong regulations and have complied with the inspections and that is why we have not had a terrible disaster. I am suggesting we know how to do this with tough engineering challenges; we can do it with fracking.

Earlier you mentioned China will self destruct due to the environmental issues they are ignoring and it will be short term. May I present Mexico was in this position many years ago and has not self destructed yet, they continue to disregard the environment like the Chinese and are many years ahead of China. Mexico has continued to flourish and not self destructed.

We agree, we need to protect the whole Earth within reason and in the US it presents a major global disadvantage. If this is the case why did we invest in off shore drilling in Brazil and tell them we want to be their best customer? Sounds like a case of NIMBY.

Lee,

Love your story about the visit to Home Depot. It is a perfect example of a government regulation gone wild. They keep making more and more complex regulations that are not followed but kept someone employed. When a disaster hits they point to the regulation and all of the fine print to shift blame to others.

I call it the "Blame Storming Session", let's find someone to blame that is an easy target so we can all feel good about ourselves and keep our jobs! No one works on the solution and the budget and jobs grow with no value being added.

A perfect example of this is the tragic oil rig fire and spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The companies involved were slack with their inspections of key equipment which lead to the event that caused the disaster. The government quickly assigned blame to these companies in public and acted as if they now took over control and are going to save us.

In fact, the government was a third party in this problem, they were the inspectors that signed off on these companies compliance to the regulations they are the authors of and have to certify compliance. All three parties should be held accountable and share in the blame; however we never heard of any governmental inspector or regulator in the mix, just those bad companies. Sounds like a great “Blame Storming Session” was held by the inspectors and regulators to make a bad guy to deflect responsibility.

Matt - questioning is not attacking, and doesn't mean one is liberal, whatever that means anymore.

See Conservative writer George Will's latest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/santorum-and-romney-are-miscast-candidates/2012/02/21/gIQA1l48TR_story.html

Who's we?

Obama leads Romney in the latest USA Today national poll by 8 percentage points.

"We" apparently do want him to be President far more than the best hope the GOP can put forward....

You read my reply wrong. It was to the republican above that says we are attacking Romney, so he MAY (lol) have a message that scares us. Yeah that Romney and Santorum's plans would ad billions more to the deficit.

Heartland, see if you really want to get voters to the polls put a tax increase on the ballot. Votes will come out in droves... maybe that's the plan ??? put local tax increases on ballots across the country to motivate Republicans to get out and vote.

Heartland please excuse my sarcasm, have a great weekend.