(Non Sequitur via GoComics.com)
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Professor Krugman chides those who would keep us “Decoupled and Divided“:
And so, predictably, Romney is accusing Obama of “attacking capitalism” and “dividing America” by raising questions about Bain and those hidden tax returns. This is all par for the course; many of us remember how any criticism of Bush was unpatriotic, and if I recall correctly, during the dotcom bubble the Wall Street Journal argued that any skepticism about stock market valuations showed a lack of faith in free markets.
The special Romney twist– aside from the willful misrepresentation of what Obama actually said about business success — is Mitt’s desire to have it both ways. He’s proud of his business record and his success, he says, but at the same time wants us to believe that he had nothing to do with Bain’s actions over a three-year period when he was still its CEO, and is completely unwilling to let us see the tax returns that would tell us something about exactly how he achieved his current wealth. (There are two competing theories about his tax stonewalling. One is that he had one or more years of zero taxes. The other is that he actually made a lot of money in 2009, because he shorted the market. We may never know which is true.)…
… Romney wants us to celebrate the success of people like him, even though their success doesn’t seem to have benefited ordinary families, and even though he stands for policies that would aggravate the gap between a fortunate few and everyone else. And then he accuses Obama of dividing America.
Ever sensitive to any shift in the conventional-wisdom wind currents, Maureen Dowd looks down her Irish nose and asks “Who’s On America’s Side?“:
… Aside from his time running the Salt Lake City Olympics, which he’s happy to publicize, Romney’s whole life, from his $250 million fortune to his tenure at the cultish Bain to his Mormonism, seems as though it’s secreted in a hidden shelter.
Like W., he’s coming across as the privileged kid who grew up at the country club and got special deals because of his dad, but then runs around claiming to be a self-made businessman. That lack of self-awareness, and Romney’s refusal to take responsibility for his own company, are disturbing traits in a leader.
Aaaaand up pops Guess Who, to remind those of short attention span about that mystery period between the Clinton and Obama administrations [warming: Politico link]:
“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful,” Bush told the Hoover Institute’s Peter Robinson.
Way to support your party’s narrative, Dubya. At least it explains why Willard “Mitt” Romney is still campaigning for the job, even if he’s doing it so badly that some observers have wondered if he really wants to win.