Remember this:
We should all be so lucky to be this kind of “unemployed”:
Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life.
Yet when it came to his considerable personal wealth, Mr. Romney never really left Bain.
In what would be the final deal of his private equity career, he negotiated a retirement agreement with his former partners that has paid him a share of Bain’s profits ever since, bringing the Romney family millions of dollars in income each year and bolstering the fortune that has helped finance Mr. Romney’s political aspirations.
Even better, he is getting taxed on those millions at a rate lower than all the people Bain Capital left jobless who are now working the night shift at Walmart.
When you are super rich and inside the bubble, getting millions a year for work you are no longer doing counts as “unemployed.” On a side note, no wonder Romney thinks unemployment benefits should be gutted so that the rich can get more tax cuts- it would be a win/win for him.
One more thought- this is the guy the Republican establishment thinks is the most electable.
(via the Benenator 2000)
Linda Featheringill
Mr. Romney, as an outsider, what is your opinion of the human race?
JPL
@Linda Featheringill: lol
JCT
Actually, I’m waiting to see what the Dems do with that old pic of Mitt with his pals all standing there with money coming out of their pockets.
Such a man of the “people”.
BGinCHI
Am I the only one who thinks Obama is going to crush him in the debates?
Romney’s problem isn’t stupidity, it’s that he doesn’t understand (or admit to himself) that he’s the token candidate for Rich White Males. He has to lie and flip-flop or he’d just have to confess the con.
Silver
Bain’s simply paying to have a future President in their pocket, that’s all.
Now, sure, that’s probably going to be a bad bet, but it didn’t always look that way…
BGinCHI
@JCT: I assume older white people will get ads where Obama and a bunch of young bucks are standing around with T-bones hanging out of their pockets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Most electable, I think, of the field they’ve got. I think Daniels or Pawlenty (if he hadn’t stupidly tried to be Chris Christie) would have been more electable than Romney, and Christie or Huckabee could have beat him for the nom, though I think both would’ve crashed hard in the general. And to a lot of low-info ‘independents”, Romney’s wealth proves that he’s smart, they buy into that whole ‘run the country like a business’ horseshit.
Chuck Butcher
I was pleased to see Robert Reich proposing taxes that look a lot like what I was talking about in early ’06. I am not making claims of being an economist.
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
Pre-Republican debates I was a-hopin’ for a round of Obama-Perry debates but Obama-Romney will do just fine, thanks.
Also, too, I was expecting a round of Biden-Rubio debates but now I’ll speculate it will be Biden-Ryan. My hesitation there is Ryan lies better with the cameras rolling than does Romney.
JCT
@BGinCHI: And covered in shiny “bling” no doubt. Sigh.
That pic of Romney is really a sight to behold, though.
Thoughtcrime
@JCT:
They can make it a musical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sor9GzivGbk
gaz
romney the robot. he’s so out of touch.
Only a man with a silver spoon rammed so far up his nether regions that it tickles his spleen would ever think that joking about being being unemployed while raking in millions would win over the rubes.
Rubes are stupid. Not quite that stupid though.
Is there ANYONE this didn’t piss off? (other than Romney)
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: Would love to see Hilary as VP, since she would mop the fucking floor with any of them.
SteveM
What — he isn’t? You mean the entire U.S. population suddenly developed class consciousness when I wasn’t looking?
Hunter Gathers
@gaz:
The entire MSM. They’ll chalk it up to him ‘business savvy’ and claim that only a savvy MBA type can lead us to our promised land containing a gutted safety net, war with Iran and permanent second-class citizenship for every one who isn’t a white heterosexual Christian.
Of course, all this could be avoided if Obama apologized to the press for being black, stopped being a hyper-partisan divider and blew Mitch McConnell while giving a hand-job to John Boehner on Meet The Press.
cathyx
Aah, to get rich while sitting by the pool. What a life. Excuse me while I go buy that lottery ticket.
Villago Delenda Est
Anyone who bitches about “moochers” needs to look no farther than men like Romney who are receiving millions of dollars for…nothing.
They produce…nothing. The contribute to the commonwealth in no way at all.
Furthermore, they’re paying proportionally less for the maintenance of society than greeters at Wal Mart. They have more than enough money to live comfortable lives, yet they insist they need even more.
Romney (and those like him) are parasites.
JPL
Romney is only pretending to be campaigning. He’s actually making ads for the Democratic Party.
Mnemosyne
Given the candidates who have emerged from the clown car, they’re probably right. But being the most electable of this batch of Republicans is like winning an Ugliest Dog contest.
When Jeb Bush is your Great White Hope (no pun intended) to beat Obama, you are screwed as a party.
chopper
@gaz:
it’s funny how the party that attacked gore so much for being a robot is behind mitt fuckin’ romney.
daveNYC
@BGinCHI:
Why would you think a debate crushing would make a difference? The media will just set up really low expectations for his performance so that simply showing up and stringing together some word salad will count as a win. Plus the usual suspects will simply chalk up Obama’s performance to having a really good teleprompter.
PeakVT
Rich fucking slag.
BGinCHI
@daveNYC: You’re probably right, but I think that fake smile and laugh Romney does when he gets called out or is embarrassed is impossible to ignore. It’s the most sanctimonious tell I’ve seen in a long time in someone who’s gotten this far publicly.
Anyone who has ever had an asshole boss (and that’s, well, everyone who has ever really worked) will instantly feel their hackles rise.
Villago Delenda Est
This link is not for the faint of heart.
You have been warned.
Do not click if you want to retain your lunch.
Again, you have been warned.
JGabriel
OT, but still kind of on the topic of money/corporations: AT&T finally gives up on T-Mobile merger.
.
Cris (without an H)
This helps explain why they have no sympathy, no appreciation, for what it means to be unemployed. They think that when the rest of us lose our jobs, we’re just kicking back, taking it easy, getting a little rest, maybe doing a little traveling. Not panicking about how we’re going to keep the house. Because that’s not how it is for them.
gaz
@Hunter Gathers:
Sorry. When I said “ANYONE”, i meant people. flesh+blood+soul, the whole bit.
I was excepting anything excessively plastic. Or parody in a meatsuit.
I should have been clear. My bad.
The Other Bob
When I see the performance of Romney in front of a camera, I keep thinking he is the right’s John Kerry, but richer, flip-floppier and worser.
gaz
@The Other Bob: John Kerry served.
Linnaeus
Romney’s not the only one; read Winner-Take-All Politics and you’ll see that these kind of lucrative long-term retirement plans for top executives are not uncommon. Of course, defined-benefit plans are way too expensive for the rest of us and we have to hope our 401(k)s (if we even have them) don’t tank. Nice.
BGinCHI
How the rich see the world:
They would probably rather have a beer with Obama, but if Romney wins they’ll be able to buy more breweries that employ non-union labor ensuring them a hefty margin of profit with little going back out the door in taxes.
Benjamin Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
Those phoshps are much too complimentar, save, the ‘strangler’
Disappointingly, there was none with him sticking his spear into Jesus’ side.
What, with the Season, and all.
Villago Delenda Est
The cretinous Birchite stupid. It burns!
lamh35
OT, but who the hell are these idiots who are funding these Robocalls for Hilary?
Has anyone actually heard one? Dumb fucks!!!
Hill Dweller
Speaking of the Benenator 2000, I read over at his place the Republicans blocked the confirmation of the head of the Government Printing Office, after he had been working there for a year(and apparently doing a good job).
What will it take for the media to accurately report on the Republican’s nihilism? This level of obstructionism is unprecedented; and it’s obviously done to prevent the government from functioning effectively.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gaz: @The Other Bob: John Kerry served.
And his record as a “flip-flopper” was/is pretty grossly exaggerated.
dogwood
What’s going to be fun when the general election campaign starts is watching the MSM conventional wisdom types doing their “Obama can’t connect with the white working class” schtick. Meanwhile, Mitt will be charming the support hose off all the old white folks as he does his bus tour of suburban and exurban nursing homes.
Mitt Romney might be the most electable among the Rep. field, but he is already a national joke. That’s not going to go away.
gaz
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: (true)
I chalk it up to sloth on my part.
I couldn’t be bothered to type more than 3 words in rebuttal. heh.
Mike in NC
The unemployment jokes, the $10K bets, “serving” his church by living in luxury in France while dodging the draft, etc.
All of this and so much more will come back to bite Willard in the ass. I only hope he burns through $50M of his personal fortune in his narcissitic quest for power.
Citizen Alan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Eh, I’ve seen worse. The artwork is quite lovely except where someone has defaced it by photoshopping in the face of a grinning satanic homunculus. Also, I certainly don’t know for sure, but I’d bet that the paintings depicting Newt as a nude male vastly overestimate the size of Little Newt.
Thymezone
What does it all mean? Four More Years, that’s what it means. Suck it, bitches.
Redshift
@Linda Featheringill:
That’s the context I always think of when I hear his “I have been as consistent as human beings can be” quote. “Human beings” there sounds like it refers to ‘them,’ not ‘us.’
Villago Delenda Est
The Newt boomlet lasted about as long as I suspected it would.
Now, the Ron Paul boomlet, this is going to be interesting, particularly if he causes the MSM to freak out by winning Iowa. I can’t imagine how guys like Chuck Toad and the vile CNN twits like John King will react.
The question then is will a boomlet that runs out by the middle of January be enough to stop the unstoppable 24% Romney juggernaut?
Benjamin Franklin
What little Newt? He’s Ken doll clean.
Villago Delenda Est
@Benjamin Franklin:
Given that Callista is a dead ringer for Barbie, that makes perfect sense.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Bobo’s been running with that schtick for months now. He trots it out on every NPR session with EJ Dionne. Everybody else will catch up after Iowa.
trollhattan
O/T I loved this pic of freshmen House Republicans on “Blue Tie Day.” Allen West, however, lives free WRT his sartorial choices.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/house-republicans-ready-to-reject-senate-payroll-tax-cut-plan-20111219
They look like the junior high A/V club, the lot of ’em.
Redshift
@daveNYC:
I doubt it. The low-expectations road is for regular-guy have-a-beer candidates like Shrub, but the media’s conception of Romney is that he’s smart and successful (if a bit stiff.) Considering how condescending he is in debates, I don’t think his campaign will be able to turn that around into another “Bush wins if he doesn’t drool on himself,” no matter how much they might want to.
And as a bonus, Romney generates no sympathy from anyone, which means Obama won’t have to be nearly as careful in eviscerating him. He’ll have to make sure not to sound like he’s talking down to the electorate, but Obama is quite good explaining how Republicans are hurting you in down-to-earth terms.
KG
I can’t figure out if Romney is everything the GOP believes/d Kerry or Gore to have been.
Second generation career politician. Changed his policy positions as he moved from local to national politics. Bred for the job (allegedly). Flip flopper. Android without an emotion chip (kinda like Data in the early years of TNG). Rich and out of touch with ordinary Americans.
It’s just weird, weird, weird.
Liberty60
Someone, I forget who, made a terrific article in which he documented how much the rich live in a consequence-free world.
Far from the Darwinian jungle they boast about surviving, they live in a world of endless second chances, mulligans, “youthful indiscretions” and pardons.
Beginning with private tutors, to legacy college admissions, to family connections to golden parachutes they bob along a sea of heads-I-win tails-you-lose deals where they can only fail ever upwards.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m beginning to think Michele might have time for a little Bachmann renaissance. They’ve probably forgotten why she cratered so badly, by now.
Thymezone
@Villago Delenda Est:
This is how.
With their patented cheesy banality.
MikeBoyScout
Frankly, this is fundamentally sad.
Newt’s corpse is not even cold yet and we’re giving all the love to Willard.
Long Live Newt!
The flashiest flash in the GOP Clown Car!
Redshift
@Villago Delenda Est:
I predict they’ll suddenly rediscover the fact that winning Iowa doesn’t mean much of anything for the nomination, historically, and focus completely on New Hampshire.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KG:
They gave us Ronald Reagan, George W Bush and Sarah Palin, then invented a fantasy world where Barack Obama can’t tell you what time it is without a teleprompter.
Benjamin Franklin
@trollhattan:
“At a news conference with about 10 other freshmen, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., said the Senate is “playing a very ugly game of political chicken with the American people.””
I prefer white meat….
Redshift
@KG: I think it fits with the general principle that if Republicans accuse Democrats of secretly doing something, they are already openly doing it themselves. The fact that they hate something when Democrats do it/embody it doesn’t say anything about what they actually hate, it’s just the current channel for their hatred of “liberals.”
lamh35
President Obama Reportedly Sent A Congratulatory Letter To A Married Gay Couple
“The letter reads:
“Congratulations to you on this special occasion. Michelle and I hope it is blessed with love, laughter and happiness.
Your union marks the beginning of a lifelong partnership as you share the joys of your life together.
I wish you the very best as you embark on your journey together and I hope that your bond grows stronger with each passing year.
–Barack Obama “
KG
@Redshift: and when Paul wins there or comes in a very close second?
dogwood
@Redshift:
You got it. Obama had to mind his manners and be respectful of McCain, knowing full well the general public liked him. McCain made the mistake of being condescending and disrespectful toward Obama, who also was viewed favorably by the electorate. Bad move. Romney has no such personal standing with the public; and if he tries to get cute or funny at the President’s expense, he won’t know what hit him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Thymezone:
Jeeze, this paragraph screamed at me:
This is MSM idiocy at its head banging against a desk worst.
The view that the September 11th attacks were in part motivated by US Foreign Policy is “noxious”? What, the truth hurts you, asshole? Is that it? Only an utter idiot would be so stupid as to not think that the direct statements of Al-Qaeda explaining their own actions might have something to do with it. But, then again, we’re talking about CNN…the outfit that pays six to eight figure salaries to dumbfucks like John King, Piers Morgan, and Leslie “but couldn’t the child still be in the balloon?” Blitzer.
Calouste
@Liberty60:
As someone here mentioned, Huntsman dropped out of high school to play in a band that didn’t make it anywhere. For most people that means the rest of their life they are working in retail, maybe making it up to owning a tattoo parlor or being a roadie for a band that did make it. For Huntsman it meant that 15 years later he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and after that Ambassador.
Thymezone
@Villago Delenda Est:
The mind boggles, for sure.
Villago Delenda Est
@Thymezone:
This falls into the category of American Exceptionalists who cannot understand how our actions might tick other people off. After all, we’re Americans! We’re special! We wouldn’t hurt a fly! Why would anyone, anywhere want to attack us? They hate us for our Freedom!
Sun Tzu wept.
Benjamin Franklin
@Villago Delenda Est:
While Machiavelli slept.
Thymezone
@Villago Delenda Est:
And then there is Condi Rice, who can eat a bag of raw onions without shedding a tear.
amk
teh ‘capitalism’ at its best….or at its worst.
r€nato
Mitt Romney is a looter with a nice suit. At this time he seems like the sane alternative to the rest of the clown show, but the truth is that he is just as unelectable as the rest of them.
I can see how Obama could pull a neat trick, a kind of reverse Rove on Romney. Karl Rove is well-known for going after a candidate’s strength. Instead, Obama can turn his weakness – the economy, which isn’t going to be significantly better 10.5 months from now – into an attack on Romney and the kind of people and policies that put us where we are.
I can even see how Obama just could turn this into a rout at the polls.
Thymezone
@r€nato:
Before next summer is over, I will place a bet with DougJ that Obama wins with a greater popular vote margin than he had in 2008. Not sure about the electoral count. But anyway, I lost a bet to him on 2008 but lost on the margin, not the outcome. So here’s to a repeat.
There is no way Obama loses to this Three Stooges operation called the GOP right now.
harlana
and here we worry about a Mitt nomination, Obama will mop the floor with this one, too. yeesh.
Cacti
@r€nato:
Mitten’s has been running for a full 6-years, and his career as a vulture capitalist has barely been touched.
I expect that will change within the hour that he locks up the nomination.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Fuck you, just fuck you. I don’t care that I was warned. Fuck you.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: Only because he never lived to follow that link was Hugo Black a First Amendment-absolutist, or ever could be.
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Well, it made me wish for John Harlan’s eyesight.
Davis X. Machina
@Cacti: 50-55 million people think that that’s something to aspire to, and nothing to worry about….if there’s an “R” after your name. All you need is another 10 million, and you’re President.
Never underestimate the American people.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: Far, far worse than anything shown in Potter Stewart’s art-house cinema, that’s for sure.
JoeShabadoo
Just the fact that his final deal was “negotiating a retitrement agreement” is ridiculous. How the hell do you negotiate a retirement? What kind of leverage do you have? Do you say “If you don’t give me a big retirement I’m going to keep working.”? Is this just basically hush money?
I really want to know how someone negotiates a retirement like this.
The experience of most Americans lucky enough to have a retirement fund/pension is that despite making the agreement when they first started working they have to take cuts in it after they stop. Romney talks to his buddies about leaving and asks if they can still throw a million or two his way every year.
He really lives in another world.
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Supreme Court nerd contest?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Now that you’ve made the sacrifice, tell us what it was so we don’t have to look.
Edit: Sorry my reply to you was to Omens not Omnes. I am hoping it was some dumb autocorrect error, because I really do know how to spell your name.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Agreed.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: It was Newt photoshopped into paintings. Nudes. I will stop now so you can throw-up a little in your mouth. Don’t worry about the auto-correct, it made me use force instead of fierce the other day. I believe it is related to FYWP.
Benjamin Franklin
Ego and power are all that’s left for the Greedheads to consume.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Newt photoshopped onto David included Mitt photoshopped in a strategic place.
Perfect for a dick like Mitt.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: I didn’t get that far. I gouged my eyes out with a melonballer. You fucking fuck.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Ick. Only thing worse would be Trump photoshopped on nudes.
harlana
@Omnes Omnibus: Next, Dali. o.O
harlana
something’s missing . . .
Queen Victoria!
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Clearly, my work in this thread merits a “Mission Accomplished!” banner on the island of an aircraft carrier. Perhaps the new Chinese one…
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Garry Trudeau already did that.
kay
I agree with the Republican establishment that Romney is the most electable.
I am just really surprised, and pleased, that he’s such a horrible candidate.
I thought he would be much, much better at this, and worse, he’s not new. He ran 3 years ago, so he’s not likely to get any better with time.
I don’t think they can fix whatever is wrong with him.
Omnes Omnibus
@kay:
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Or didn’t have one to begin with….
Ruckus
@Davis X. Machina:
Shouldn’t that be – Never overestimate the american voter.
JoeShabadoo
@kay:
They are just going to pop open the hatch and install some new personality software. They hope to achieve more realistic, human-like behavior before the presidential debates begin but I think the hardware just isn’t advanced enough yet. We’ll have wait for Romneybot 3.0 or the new iRomney before he starts to mimic life well enough to fool us.
Davis X. Machina
@JoeShabadoo: In a nation where Velveeta™ is widely considered to be a form of cheese, Mitt Romney easily qualifies as a form of human being.
America, having in my lifetime broken barriers and put a woman on a major party ticket, (1984), a Jew (2000), and a Nosferatu (also 2000) — albeit as vice-presidential picks — and then elected its first President of color, is now finally ready to take the next step — a synthetic President made entirely of textured vegetable protein.
Is this a great country, or what?
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Nosferatu (What is the plural?) now have a defamation case against you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Davis X. Machina: Mitt Romney, A Human Being-like Product, in 2012
or maybe we could spell it differently, like with the fake krab: Mitt Romney, All Too Hyooman
JoeShabadoo
@Davis X. Machina:
Soilent Romney?
Kane
If Bain had created anywhere near as many jobs as it has destroyed, don’t you think Team Romney would have those numbers readily available for the media, and don’t you think Romney would be boasting about those numbers ad nauseum?
And where are the companies that Bain supposedly made stronger located? Are we to assume that those companies are all in the U.S.? Bain is a multinational corporation with global offices in London, Luxembourg, Munich, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Is Romney continuing to profit off of foreign companies (via his retirement package) that are in direct competition with American companies that provide American jobs?
Wouldn’t that raise a serious issue of conflict of interests for an individual seeking the office of the presidency? Don’t you think voters might be interested in knowing that Romney continues to make millions of dollars every year from a company that is investing in companies and workers abroad?
dance around in your bones
@Davis X. Machina:
Sometimes, when I can’t sleep or just wake up at 4:30am for no apparent reason, I’ll check in at Balloon Juice to see what’s shakin’.
Comments like this one of yours make my family question my sanity as they hear me laughing like a loon in the middle of the night.
And yeah, this IS a great country, one that is so visionary as to try to elect President Textured Vegetable Protein (see how the VP is already baked in?) hahahahahahahahahaha