the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

Apparently will become a key image of the campaign:

http://viehebdomadaires.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/pinocchio-small.jpg

An acapella trail of compromising singsong also key for both sides:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIajeW6xPnI

man, that's such a weak response ad. the lingering message it leaves is "obama's a better singer than romney"

I actually think that's more or less as good as the Obama ad that started this...just as political theatre.

is there anything else to this shit?

Those commie pinkos at Bloomberg take a look at Romney's record at Bain and are . . . not pleased. They start with

Thanks to leverage, 10 of roughly 67 major deals by Bain Capital during Romney’s watch produced about 70 percent of the firm’s profits. Four of those 10 deals, as well as others, later wound up in bankruptcy. It’s worth examining some of them to understand Romney’s investment style at Bain Capital.

While Bain Capital wasn’t alone in using financial engineering to turbo-charge its returns, it was among the most aggressive under Romney’s leadership. Enriching investors by taking leveraged bets isn’t a qualification for a job requiring long-term vision and concern for public welfare. It is appropriate to point that out to voters.

In 1992, Bain Capital bought American Pad & Paper by financing 87 percent of the purchase price. In the next three years, Ampad borrowed to make acquisitions, repay existing debt and pay Bain Capital and its investors $60 million in dividends.

As a result, the company’s debt swelled from $11 million in 1993 to $444 million by 1995. The $14 million in annual interest expense on this debt dwarfed the company’s $4.7 million operating cash flow. The proceeds of an initial public offering in July 1996 were used to pay Bain Capital $48 million for part of its stake and to reduce the company’s debt to $270 million.

From 1993 to 1999, Bain Capital charged Ampad about $18 million in various fees. By 1999, the company’s debt was back up to $400 million. Unable to pay the interest costs and drained of cash paid to Bain Capital in fees and dividends, Ampad filed for bankruptcy the following year. Senior secured lenders got less than 50 cents on the dollar, unsecured lenders received two- tenths of a cent on the dollar, and several hundred jobs were lost. Bain Capital had reaped capital gains of $107 million on its $5.1 million investment.

the united states should try to buy other countries and then sell them for profit

Sullivan goes Spider-Man. (Last paragraph.)

That Bloomberg piece is pretty blunt:

What’s clear from a review of the public record during his management of the private-equity firm Bain Capital from 1985 to 1999 is that Romney was fabulously successful in generating high returns for its investors. He did so, in large part, through heavy use of tax-deductible debt, usually to finance outsized dividends for the firm’s partners and investors. When some of the investments went bad, workers and creditors felt most of the pain. Romney privatized the gains and socialized the losses.

What’s less clear is how his skills are relevant to the job of overseeing the U.S. economy, strengthening competitiveness and looking out for the welfare of the general public, especially the middle class.

And all of this starts a year or two before Gordon Gekko.

"For the record, "puto" is Spanish for male prostitute. In Mexico it's used for cowards and traitors."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/07/15/george-lopez-mitt-romney-f-king-latino-and-he-wont-admit-it

I put it to you this will not help:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/us/politics/pawlenty-looked-at-as-romney-running-mate.html

quick change the conversation, pick a running mate!

Romney campaign is so lol, gonna be a fun summer

Pawlenty: "I'm working-class so I can relate."

Response: "But Romney would have fired you."

Pawlenty: "Haha thank you."

George Lopez's stand-up special was basically an hour of him cursing in Spanish, it was kind of great

Slate has a sidebar up saying Romney has made his pick. If it is Pawlenty, he will have to claim amnesia on coining the term Obamneycare.

it's the "voodoo economics" of 2012

True--and Biden had to contend with a couple of comments in '08.

Pawlenty is a totally stupid pick for him, it will deflate any enthusiasm from the base

Android/Mullet '12

30% chance Romney panics and accidentally picks Palin

If he announces this week, I think it's tougher to guess who it'll be than if he were to follow the normal timetable. Has Romney concluded the past week was serious enough that he needs a major distraction? Then Rubio or Jindal or Christie or Ryan or a woman (but not Rice). Or does he think this is temporary, and that a month from now everything will have stabilized and it'll be back 95% to various economic reports? If so, I'd guess Portman or Pawlenty, agreeing that neither generates (or distracts from) much of anything.

congrats Natalie Portman, you will be a v v pretty VP

Vice President Padme Amidala would be pretty rad though.

she sucks at trade negotiations iirc

Or in keeping with suggestions upthread, he could play to his strength and name one of these two:

http://photo.superfan.com/0/001/039/1039811LG4026367891.jpg http://madinternetmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Money_Bag.png

Romney couldn't pick his first choice due to him being a naturalized citizen:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/ScroogeFirst.jpg

"Your Republican candidate for Vice President, this inanimate carbon rod!"

http://communicategood.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/carbon-rod.jpg

I wonder if Romney picks a turd for VP there will be chaos at the RNC like when McGovern picked Eagleton and shit went to hell even faster

I think the Republicans could rally around Mr Hankey

Princess Padme too radical on civil liberties ("So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause")

never absorbed resemblance btwn S McDuck and Cheney til now

I wonder if Romney picks a turd for VP there will be chaos at the RNC like when McGovern picked Eagleton and shit went to hell even faster

― johnathan lee riche$ (mayor jingleberries), Monday, July 16, 2012 12:01 PM

Pawlenty is Welsh for "electroconvulsive therapy" iirc.

I actually think that's more or less as good as the Obama ad that started this...just as political theatre.

― clemenza, Monday, July 16, 2012 11:10 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol wut

Yeah, I'll stand by that, with the qualification noted--i.e., not speaking to the truth of either ad, just the relative effectiveness of the each ad's juxtaposition.

Or "of each ad's," minus the "the"--let's go with that.

only pure Bamstanning is kosher here, clem

lost souls the both of you

Megan Amram ‏@meganamram

I wouldn't be surprised one bit if it turns out that Mitt Romney is one of those inflatable tube guys from car dealerships

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My screensaver yesterday:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/barack.jpg

Today:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7105/obama0304kc9.png

Will the prodigal son find his way back home? Stay tuned!

truthmonk.com

haha the only people who have taken over Michigan are the Devos family

American Bamstan

would kinda love it if Obama started to rock a hipster beard tbrr

the romney response ad looks like it was made in windows movie maker in about 2 hours.

The Romney response ad is only objectionable, really, because it comes from Romney. Anyone here want to claim Obama as tireless scourge of the ruling class?

dig in?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78582788/McCain-2008-Oppo-File

nevermind. that's old news. moving on.

Click on the Romney ad I posted earlier today; pretty funny.

late to the game here, but just read that Bloomberg article on Romney @ Bain ... so basically, his specialty was the "bust out."