ROMNEY, BAIN, CHINA AND ROMNESIA

To date the Obama campaign has let Romney run amuck on presenting a spectrum of differing positions on almost any and every policy. It was almost as if Obama was giving him more and more rope to hang himself. (Blog: Romney AND Obama No Show At Debate). Challenges to date on Romney's innumerable positions were rare and selective. Romney was just accepted as being a "serious conservative" We saw the beginnings of the Romney chameleonic approach to policy being focused on by the Obama team in the second debate. Now we have a name for his behavior - "Romnesia".




DOUBLE SPEAK NOW A CAMPAIGN ISSUE

 It was on Friday that this double speak, became a central Campaign Issue. Obama did not call Romney an outright liar when Romney mislead women voters away from his official platform and previously stated positions. Rather Obama said Romney suffered from a condition called "Romnesia" - If you have forgotten what your position on legislation for Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women is and what the policies on your website are, you are probably suffering from a condition called "Romnesia". Obama then reassured Romney that he qualified for treatment for his condition as Obamacare ensured health care for existing diseases.

"BAINPORT" ILLINOIS

Friday was not going to be Romney's day. Ed Schultz of MSNBC featured a live show from Freeport, now named "Bainport", Illinois. Freeport is a small town of 27,000 inhabitants where Bain, in 2010, had bought a manufacturing plant called Sensata. Bain was now in the process of closing it down and relocating it to China. Sensata had made a profit of  $500 million last quarter but that was not enough. Now 200 families would be directly affected by Bain as it laid of all its workers.




The town was out in force for the TV production and the Mayor of "Bainport" detailed would this loss of several million dollars in revenue to the town would mean - both directly and indirectly to other services and businesses in the town. The Mayor had repeatedly invited Romney and or Bain to come and discuss the matter with the Town's representatives and had been met with rejection at every stage.

Employees were interviewed as to the impact of the closing of the factory would have on all aspects of their lives including health care, relocation and going on unemployment. (Part of the 47% moochers that Bain is helping to create). A representative of the Tire Union workers in a nearby factory contrasted this decision to one of Obama's. Obama had saved the tire industry by placing a tariff on China's tire imports and literally thousands of jobs had been saved.

Background information showed that Bain since it's inception had outsourced thousands of jobs to China.

CHINA, ROMNEY AND OBAMA

In last week's debate Romney had criticized Obama for allowing China to take unfair trade advantage of America. One of the (many) tasks Romney would undertake on his first busy day of office would be to label China a currency manipulator. (Economists and all Romney’s business buddies think this is a futile counterproductive exercise but it makes for good politics). 

Obama responded as to what he had done in relation to Chinese business practices and reminded Romney that he, Obama had rescued the tire industry. Romney's response had been to criticize Obama and to say that this interfered with free market practices. Following a testy exchange, Obama opined, that Romney was the last person to criticize the administration’s China policy bearing in mind Bain's ongoing relationship with China. He and Bain had been the pioneers of outsourcing of jobs to China.


CHINA, ROMNEY AND "ROMNESIA"



Romney's Romnesia is short term memory loss as illustrated by his "forgetfulness" of his own policy statements, website and Republican Party Platform (His long term Romnesia is well known). His Romnesia also pertains to ongoing events such as the Bainport scandal. Now Fox News has a psychiatrist that analyzes the behavior of Democratic politicians. He has said that Biden’s behavior is indicative of dementia. Maybe someone should ask him what type of dementia these consistent ongoing short-term memory lapses of Romney point to. 

One of the biggest ironies of this election is that the Republican candidate Mitt Romney's most powerful argument is that because of his "business experience", he is the man to pull America out of their current financial crisis. He will create jobs and stimulate the American economy. His argument for his business experience is based solely on his involvement in the Company, Bain.



Romney is still the largest shareholder in Bain with 51% of the shareholding  - the same Bain that is in the middle of the Freeport controversy.  It is estimated that he will make about $8,000,000 out of this deal. Sensata Technologies makes sensors and controls for aircraft and automobiles and has to have some security and technological methodology that maybe China should not be getting for nothing.

Now one could argue that Romney's financial interests are under the control of a "blind trust". However, it was Romney himself who argued in 2010, that the blind trust argument was a sham as you could instruct your trustees, in broad terms, as what to do and what not to do. So Romney himself has negated this argument with video material to prove it.

BAIN INDICATIVE OF ROMNEY'S ECONOMIC SOLUTION




The whole issue of Bain is indicative of the business model that Romney represents and that he maintains can save America by creating jobs. It is built on the premise that people like him should be taxed less, be allowed to invest oversea with jobs and capital and get tax incentives to do so. Furthermore, they can dodge even more tax by not repatriating the money. Now with all this money supposedly they can create jobs - "trickle down economics". 

Romney has not instructed his trustees, with all his money, to create jobs or invest in small businesses that create jobs. Nor has anyone else proved his model actually works. There are fond references to Reagan but to the best of Jay H. Ell's long term and short term memory, Reagan nor anyone else was outsourcing jobs, among other variables, as a model for resuscitating the economy.

Ed Schultz's hour-long piece on Bainport should be compulsory viewing for anyone who is voting for Romney for his business expertise. Or maybe Romney will have Romnesia for his whole Bain experience as well as his current majority interest and detail a real economic plan instead of talking about bipartisanship solving the economy.  The latter activity is one his partner Ryan, with the whole Republican Congress, steadfastly worked against in order to ensure that Obama did not succeed- maybe the Fox psychiatrist will tell us what type of behavior it is to for, 4 years, attempt to sink the ship, with ALL it's crew, in order to get the Captain.

China may well just come up in the debate on Foreign Policy and Jay H Ell believes that Bain will return to the poltical debate very very soon.