Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Last week, Willard "Mittens" Romney met with Darth Vader Dick Cheney in his secret lair deep inside Devil's Tower in Wyoming. (This is only a slight exaggeration). The media was prohibited from being in earshot of this meeting or from taking any photographs.
The best anyone could report was "Romney was spotted shaking Cheney’s hand and giving Lynne Cheney a kiss on the cheek. But campaign aides quickly escorted reporters who were watching the exchange out of view." Dick Cheney gives Mitt Romney his endorsement - The Washington Post. Darth Vader Dick Cheney had this to say:
Cheney introduced Romney and said he was confident the former Massachusetts governor would lead the nation through an unanticipated crisis such as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I’m convinced that in addition to all of these other qualifications that you all know about, when I think about the kind of individual I want in the Oval Office in that moment of crisis, who has to make those key decisions, some of them life-and-death decisions, decisions as the commander in chief, who has the responsibility for sending our young men and women in harm’s way – that man’s Mitt Romney,” Cheney said.
Leaving aside the fact that Mittens Romney has been endorsed by a war criminal whose Neoconservative "brain trust" is serving as Romney's foreign policy advisors, Darth Vader Dick Cheney says that Mittens Romney passes the commander-in-chief test.
Let's be clear: everyone from a platoon leader, to the captain of a ship, to the CEO of a corporation, to the president of the United States is responsible for what happens on their watch. As President Harry Truman said, "the buck stops here."
But for the past 10 years, Mittens Romney has been running away from responsibility and passing the buck for what the public views negatively as the dark side of vulture capitalism during his watch at the helm of Bain Capital between 1999-2002 (even though he got fabulously wealthy from its success).
On the Sunday morning bobblehead shows his campaign spokesmen desperately tried to distance Romney from the vulture capitalism of Bain Capital and to pass the buck. Obama: Bain claims don't warrant apology:
Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.
Romney's advisers, trying to explain the discrepancies between Romney's account and federal documents, offered fresh explanations to shift the campaign back to more comfortable ground.
"He actually retired retroactively at that point," Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said. "He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain."
A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on Security and Exchange Commission documents as he sought to transfer the company's leadership to partners. The exact role Romney played at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending jobs overseas during that period.
The president said Romney must square his explanation.
"Mr. Romney is now claiming he wasn't there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company."
* * *
"Either you're the CEO, president, chairman of the board of Bain Capital as you attest to the SEC or he's telling the American people he bears no responsibility for that," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said. "Both those things can't be true. Either you're in charge or you're not."
What this Bain Capital imbroglio makes abundantly clear is that Willard "Mittens" Romney has failed the commander-in-chief test miserably. He seeks to claim credit for successes, some of which he had nothing to do with, and he seeks to absolve himself of any negatives by jumping into the hot tub time machine and claiming that he "retroactively retired" in February 1999. Ignore the fact that he was the commander on watch at the helm of Bain Capital during this time.
Even GOP-friendly Forbes magazine is suggesting that Mittens Romney has failed the commander-in-chief test. 35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away - Forbes. Here is a sampling:
Specifically, Romney is going to have to answer the following 35 questions before this issue subsides:
1. Are you contending that an individual can simultaneously be the CEO, president, managing director of a company, and its sole stockholder and somehow be “disassociated” from the company or accurately classified as someone not having “any” formal involvement with a company?
2. You have stated that in “Feb. 1999 I left Bain capital and all management responsibility” and “I had no ongoing activity or involvement.” It depends on what the definition of “involvement” is, doesn’t it? Clearly you were involved with Bain to the extent that you owned it. Are you defining “involvement” in a uniquely specific way that only means “full-time, active, 60-hours-a-week, hands-on manager?”
3. How exactly are you defining “involvement?”
4. Surely someone from Bain occasionally called you up and asked your opinion about something work related from 1999 to 2002. Wouldn’t that qualify as “involvement,” if only on a minor level?
5. You earned at least $100,000 as an executive from Bain in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings according to filings with State of Massachusetts. Can you give an example of anyone else you personally know getting a six figure income, not dividend or investment return, but actual income, from a company they had nothing to do with?
6. What did you do for this $100,000 salary you earned from Bain in both 2000 and 2001?
7. If you did nothing to earn this salary, did the Bain managers violate their fiduciary duty by paying you a salary for no discernible reason?
Willard "Mittens" Romney has failed the commander-in-chief test. There is no way to recover from this failure. It is time for the GOP establishment to explain to Mittens that he has fatally wounded his candidacy, and it is time for him to seriously consider stepping aside.
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