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Americans really wish they had elected Mitt Romney instead of Obama


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2014 Jul 28, 4:03am   24,859 views  108 comments

by zzyzzx   ➕follow (9)   💰tip   ignore  

http://theweek.com/article/index/265418/speedreads-americans-really-wish-they-elected-mitt-romney-instead-of-obama

Americans are so down on President Obama at the moment that, if they could do the 2012 election all over again, they'd overwhelmingly back the former Massachusetts governor's bid. That's just one finding in a brutal CNN poll, released Sunday, which shows Romney topping Obama in a re-election rematch by a whopping nine-point margin, 53 percent to 44 percent. That's an even larger spread than CNN found in November, when a survey had Romney winning a redo 49 percent to 45 percent.

Two years ago, Obama won re-election with about 51 percent of the vote.

Of course, the poll should be taken with a grain of salt. While Obama is actually taking on the tough task of leading the nation, Romney is sitting comfortably on the sidelines. Still, the finding comes as foreign and domestic crises have sent Obama's approval rating tumbling back to 40 percent, per Gallup.

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63   mell   2014 Aug 1, 5:22am  

Bellingham Bill says

Isolationism is a sub-strain of right-wingerism, of course. Buchanan, and the 1930s pro-German version of it, too.

First we hear from some that Romney would have brought on more right-wing warmongering, then somebody states they do not support the recent wars, and it suddenly turns into dangerous isolationism, which is - of course - another sub-strain of right-wingerism. Seems like only Obama does it right, whether he warmongers or not ;)

Can't really say how Mittens would have fared overall, but at least his tax policy and special deduction/exemptions/loophole reform would have been far better than Obama's tax policy.

Vicente says

I love it when my Texas friends spout off about illegals. I ask them what was the citizenship status of the people who built the places they live and work. Construction would be crippled without illegals, easily half the workforce in Texas.

Easy for you to say out of Davis, CA. Not so easy for a family in a Arizona or Texan border town, caught in the crossfire of trafficking and crimes, fearing for their children.

64   Vicente   2014 Aug 1, 5:32am  

mell says

Easy for you to say out of Davis, CA. Not so easy for a family in a Arizona or Texan border town, caught in the crossfire of trafficking and crimes, fearing for their children.

Your profile says "San Francisco, CA" which is even farther from AZ & TX.

GOP are just whiners here, they lack bold initatives like this:

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/kkk-member-calls-shoot-kill-policy-refugee

65   mell   2014 Aug 1, 5:45am  

Vicente says

Your profile says "San Francisco, CA" which is even farther from AZ & TX.

Yes, but I am not the one telling the "whiners" to suck it up.

66   tatupu70   2014 Aug 1, 5:48am  

mell says

Can't really say how Mittens would have fared overall, but at least his tax
policy and special deduction/exemptions/loophole reform would have been far
better than Obama's tax policy.

Sure-if you're part of the 1%.

67   mell   2014 Aug 1, 5:55am  

tatupu70 says

mell says

Can't really say how Mittens would have fared overall, but at least his tax

policy and special deduction/exemptions/loophole reform would have been far

better than Obama's tax policy.

Sure-if you're part of the 1%.

Disagree. The very top would have paid more because of the special tax/fee levied on the very wealthy, the "wage slaves" (roughly 100K-300K) would have gotten a well deserved break and it would have been marginally harder on those who currently have a negative effective tax rate, which is utter bs and inherently unfair. It also masks the number of people who are dependent on the state (welfare, subsidies etc.).

68   FortWayne   2014 Aug 1, 6:33am  

Vicente says

They pick all their own crops do they?

I love it when my Texas friends spout off about illegals. I ask them what was the citizenship status of the people who built the places they live and work. Construction would be crippled without illegals, easily half the workforce in Texas.

A lot of farmers pick their own crops or hire locals to use machinery to handle the process.

In Texas they work with local government to legalize Mexicans, so they could hire legals. Only in CA, as far as I could tell, we hire millions of illegals and pretend the world needs to be like us.

We are driving ourselves toward a welfare state.

69   edvard2   2014 Aug 1, 7:05am  

FortWayne says

A lot of farmers pick their own crops or hire locals to use machinery to handle the process.

In Texas they work with local government to legalize Mexicans, so they could hire legals. Only in CA, as far as I could tell, we hire millions of illegals and pretend the world needs to be like us.

We are driving ourselves toward a welfare state.

I disagree from a personal perspective. My Uncle is a 3rd generation farmer who employs immigrant labor and as he has told me multiple times, if he did not have this labor the farm would go out of business. The other thing too is that its not like pays them less. He actually pays them the same as anyone else. He even lets them stay in a number of homes on the property free of charge. The issue is that he seriously cannot get anyone else to do the labor period.

70   zzyzzx   2014 Aug 1, 8:01am  

edvard2 says

The issue is that he seriously cannot get anyone else to do the labor period.

The issue is that our welfare benefits are too high.

71   FortWayne   2014 Aug 1, 8:25am  

edvard2 says

I disagree from a personal perspective. My Uncle is a 3rd generation farmer who employs immigrant labor and as he has told me multiple times, if he did not have this labor the farm would go out of business. The other thing too is that its not like pays them less. He actually pays them the same as anyone else. He even lets them stay in a number of homes on the property free of charge. The issue is that he seriously cannot get anyone else to do the labor period.

His story is common, but I've never seen it as the shortage of labor because plenty of legal workers come to work in US too. There is a program for that in CA.

It's always been the problem with taxation, and regulation. Board of Equalization is a pain in you know what. There are all kinds of fees and taxes on employers, making it very expensive to hire someone to work. So most just choose to hire illegals. And as long as government has no way of policing the activity it'll stay that way. Honest people go out of business pretty fast out here.

And I tell you, government knows all this. They don't care how it affects any of us. All they want is to maximize their tax dollars so they can spend it on their crony friends. That's my opinion of it.

72   edvard2   2014 Aug 1, 8:37am  

zzyzzx says

The issue is that our welfare benefits are too high.

No and no. Seriously he spent YEARS trying to get Americans to work on his farm. His father never had a problem with that. The pay for the area they live in was good and he treated his employees fair. But the guys would just quit. Either that or they would be problematic employees.

To me its more an issue that Americans are too damned lazy. Most Americans don't know what hard work is and when they actually have to do it, well they're just too good for doing "that" kind of work. Its got nothing to do with welfare.

I don't think this is a new issue. America has always had a group of immigrants from either a country or a select few countries who come here, do the hard work, and after several generations work their way up the ladder. In the 1890's-1900's it was the Italian and German immigrants working in the factories. Later on it was the Italians. And now we have immigrants from Mexico. At some point my family came here from Europe for the same reasons.

73   Vicente   2014 Aug 1, 8:57am  

edvard2 says

Seriously he spent YEARS trying to get Americans to work on his farm.

I question certain aspects of the universal industriousness theory of illegals.

Some I suspect work in the fields because that's the kind of job you can get with few questions asked considering the situation many are in. Sometimes iffy grasp of English, perhaps need to work only seasonally and return to Mexico. If you had decent English, and no spouse to return in another country, you'd be a fool not to shoot for at least a fast-food gig.

74   indigenous   2014 Aug 1, 12:19pm  

Vicente says

The classic Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever" covered this ground in a mildly entertaining way. Your speculation reminds me more of the Sad Sacks who fantasize about what would have happened if the South won the Civil War. Different is not necessarily better.

No dumb ass look at the things that Wilson did that would not have happened if not for the sentiment created by WW1

75   Vicente   2014 Aug 1, 12:23pm  

indigenous says

No dumb ass look at the things that Wilson did that would not have happened if not for the sentiment created by WW1

It's difficult enough comprehending what DID happen.

Hypothetical history is for wankers.

76   indigenous   2014 Aug 1, 12:25pm  

Vicente says

It's difficult enough comprehending what DID happen.

Yes I can see you are struggling. Have a nice day...

77   New Renter   2014 Aug 1, 12:34pm  

sbh says

If you pay people not to work they will oblige you.

You're not paying them not to work, you're paying them not to kill you.

78   marcus   2014 Aug 1, 2:32pm  

edvard2 says

To me its more an issue that Americans are too damned lazy.

It might also be that housing in the area is too expensive for that level of pay. That is, maybe nobody within 30 miles has housing payments low enough for that kind of pay.

IF he has housing on his farm that's a great deal for migrant workers. What is he paying ? Probably about $300/week or less. But that's pretty damn good if it comes with free housing.

79   marcus   2014 Aug 1, 2:34pm  

Vicente says

Hypothetical history is for wankers.

I see what you did there.

80   Vicente   2014 Aug 1, 4:33pm  

indigenous says

No dumb ass look at the things that Wilson did that would not have happened if not for the sentiment created by WW1

OK fine then, I'll play along for a few minutes.

Charles Hughes is President in 1916. Hughes under influence of Teddy Roosevelt leaps into the fray with direct military action sooner. We are in the thick of trench warfare for longer and it costs much more. Hughes signs the Treaty of Versailles, and by joining strengthens the League of Nations. The Republican Party is thus enmeshed in the League of Nations which having more power due to the participation of USA softens the effects of the Treaty in the long run.

After WWI the Republican brand takes a beating and lose in 1920, conservative Democrats win. The Republican party is retooled by it's progressive wing and they lead the charge for a New Deal after the Great Depression. Germany is not so crippled economically thanks to League of Nations intervention, the Nazis never rise to power, and it ends up going Communist and is eventually a client state of the growing Russian Empire. WWII as we knew it doesn't happen. Things get weirder from here.

Fap fap fap... OK I'm done.

81   indigenous   2014 Aug 2, 12:52am  

Vicente says

OK fine then, I'll play along for a few minutes.

That must be some good shit, you're smoking...

82   zzyzzx   2014 Aug 2, 1:01am  

sbh says

I was proud of McCain when he said years ago "Who's going to pick lettuce in Yuma when it's 115 degrees?"

Americans will do this if it's that or starvation. Our welfare benefits are too generous.

83   zzyzzx   2014 Aug 2, 1:02am  

Vicente says

Construction would be crippled without illegals

Construction would cost more, Americans still do this type of work.

There is no job that an American won't do. For some reason liberals believe that certain types of work are "too good" for Americans.

84   New Renter   2014 Aug 2, 3:57am  

zzyzzx says

Vicente says

Construction would be crippled without illegals

Construction would cost more, Americans still do this type of work.

There is no job that an American won't do. For some reason liberals believe that certain types of work are "too good" for Americans.

Well here's a nice conservative Republican for you who would be happy to do whatever it takes:

http://patrick.net/?p=1247303

85   indigenous   2014 Aug 2, 5:44am  

Vincente

Listen to this video, to get an idea of what i'm talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1I_PENDJPM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

86   indigenous   2014 Aug 2, 9:35am  

jazz music says

NOW HEAR THIS: the poor didn't fuck you, THE RICH fucked you and hired some talking heads to confuse the issue.

What a glib perfunctory comment.

87   mell   2014 Aug 2, 9:45am  

jazz music says

sbh says

laziness and parasitic culture in the working class easily rivals the greed and arrogance of the business owner. Welfare must have limits.

How about limiting welfare to Citibank, Boeing, etc. That's where the grandchildren's money went, not the poor people who can't afford their own commentators and 24/7 propaganda channel

Yes! Tell that to Obama who is bought and owned by the bankstas like nobody else.

88   Dan8267   2014 Aug 2, 10:41am  

Vicente says

OK fine then, I'll play along for a few minutes.

I think they made a documentary of that alternative history.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/DCzycYjrNVg

One good thing about the alternative universe, the female military uniforms.

89   indigenous   2014 Aug 2, 11:09am  

Hey Beavis you and Butthead should both listen to the link I posted otherwise I will have to go ahead and confirm you as willfully ignorant.

90   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Aug 3, 3:58am  

1750

Dearest Sir Winston-Smythe IV,

I am encountering prodigious great difficulties employing the Indentured Servants, whom you paid the passage for. They are immediately absonding for Jamestown, refusing to work off their debts, and they shirk heavy labor, no doubt from their weak constitutions caused by Gin consumption, and a history of Workhouse coddling by the London Authorities who shy from the whip and chain.

I therefore instruct you to purchase and send forth some industrious, hardworking Negroes from Africa, who are also docile and whose excellent tropical constitution allows them to perform the cotton picking tasks required of them.

Yours,

James Cunningham-Whitlebury III
Cunningham Plantation, Carolina Colony, North America.

1870
Dear Winston-Smythe VII,

Please take out more advertisements for Irishmen in Dublin Papers. My Cigar Factory is currently understaffed, as young men here are more interested in heading out west to get their free handout land, rather than demonstrating Good American industry by working for me. The Negroes have become surly and lazy in their newfound "Freedom". The Irishmen work for peanuts with little complaint, and since they have or will inherit no tools or traps, nor be paid enough to buy them, they cannot escape to the Frontier to "Homestead" on land that properly belonged to my ancestors to expand cotton plantations to, but that the vile Original Gorilla Abraham Lincoln stole from us.

Best regards,
James Cunningham-Whitlebury VI

1885>
Dear Winston-Smythe VIII,

I hear that the Chinese, that ancient and productive race, are now arriving in the United States. Please have an agent meet them in San Francisco, as I am currently expanding our intercontinental line with new branches, and cannot get anybody to work at the wages I can afford to pay.

Please also investigate as to the status of purchasing 200 acres of coastal land in East Egg, Long Island; my daughter Veronica Winston-Smythe VIII has just gotten married and needs a starter home. I visited our friend Vanderbilt there and found the area much to my liking.

Best,

James Cunningham-Whitlebury VI

1920
Dear Winston-Smythe IX,

The damn Irishmen have all been given jobs at the Post Office, that vile den of patronage, in return for voting for City Bosses. It befits their Celtic temperment, being given to drink, talking ceaselessly, and avoiding physical labor.

Those that are still employed by me are engaging in massive strikes, no doubt encouraged by Hebrew Communists, and the Xenophobic anti-Capitalist Progressives have refused my need for Chinks. The Papist Leader in Rome is also responsible, I fear, for making my laborers saucy.

Please advertise in Syracuse for hardy Sicilian Men, inhabitants of that rough and hot land, who are far more industrious and productive than the subhuman Potato Hordes who insist on high pay for shirking half the day. These Sicilians will work for only a "Guinea".

Best regards,

James Cunningham-Whitelbury-Woosely.

1965
Dear Senator Winston-Smythe XII,

Productivity on my California Lettuce plantations is crawling to a halt because obnoxious, spoiled teenagers insist on making $2 an hour plus room and board. $2 an hour to pick lettuce! However, I have recently had the excellent experience of employing some poorly documented individuals of Mexican extraction, who will work for 10 cents an hour. They are simply more industrious than Suburban White American Teenagers.

The sense of entitlement astounds me, ever since the Jews organized the Italians and Irishmen into Unions. Blacks have always been lazy.

To prevent this sort of Communism from marching on, please be sure to vote "Aye" on the upcoming "Subsidies for American Small Farmers Act" that will give me millions in write offs and subsidies.

Please also have your Committee add to the current "Restore American Military Act" by providing for at least 100,000 guest workers a year. I'll make sure to package more donations for next year's election cycle.

Best regards,
James Cunningham-Whitlebury Woosely III

91   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Aug 3, 4:33am  

Circa 1910s:

Nothing new under the sun.

92   Bellingham Bill   2014 Aug 3, 7:41am  

thunderlips11 says

Dearest Sir Winston-Smythe IV

I can't find a google match . . . that's original work??

If so, a simple "Like" does not suffice . . . Solid knowledge of how this nation came to be as it is, socio-economically.

93   Bellingham Bill   2014 Aug 3, 7:43am  

mell says

Obama who is bought and owned by the bankstas like nobody else

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
$20,437,371 -> (D)
$68,056,133 -> (R)

https://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/sectorall.php?cycle=2012

94   indigenous   2014 Aug 3, 7:57am  

Bellingham Bill says

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

$20,437,371 -> (D)

$68,056,133 -> (R)

That does not mean he is not owned by Wall St, as he is.

Where does the FED buying trillions of MBSs show up pn your "graphs".

95   mell   2014 Aug 3, 9:49am  

Bellingham Bill says

mell says

Obama who is bought and owned by the bankstas like nobody else

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

$20,437,371 -> (D)

$68,056,133 -> (R)

https://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/sectorall.php?cycle=2012

GS was the 2nd biggest donor to Obama in 2008. Look what happened then. Nuff said.

96   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Aug 3, 10:29am  

Bellingham Bill says

I can't find a google match . . . that's original work??

If so, a simple "Like" does not suffice . . . Solid knowledge of how this nation came to be as it is, socio-economically.

Original work. The reason we're so different than the Europeans is that we never escaped the Plantation mentality.

"If I work real hard, the boss promised me a Present. He said I'm the best out of all these other loafers. He has no sons, either..."

I'll have to refine that piece to add some remarks about measuring skulls for criminality and laziness, and I forgot the Germans.

97   Bellingham Bill   2014 Aug 3, 2:42pm  

mell says

GS was the 2nd biggest donor to Obama in 2008. Look what happened then. Nuff said.

My thoughts on this are:

1) Obama was under qualified in 1Q09 and didn't know WTF he was doing, and neither did the coterie of establishment/centrist economists giving him policy advice.

Nobody even today understands the colossal amount of fraud that went on 2004-2007.

By 1933 FDR had had 20 years in government (counting the gap years in the 1920s when he was recovering from polio) and also had had the G.D. devolve for 3 years before being able to take over from Hoover and Mellon.

The 1Q09 transition was a much more trickier situation. Liquidating BAC and C was several bridges too far. Job #1 was clearly saving the system as it was, attempts at reform would just make the president politically liable for failing to save it.

Politically, going after Wall Street just puts a big target on Obama for the GOP to tar him as a bomb-throwing anti-capitalist.

Of course, the base already believes this, but for the GOP to remain a relevant political force it has to win over most of the idiot independents in this country, and for that they need to construct good lies about the Dems.

Obama's modus operandi is to remain a centrist, even drift to the right a little like with what happened with ObamaCare. This triangulation forces the GOP ever rightward and away from the "independent" electorate, since the GOP can't be caught dead agreeing with Obama on anything or their mouth-breather base will crucify them.

cf. Cantor for how that works.

GS was pretty untouchable. They got their big bailout in 2008 anyway.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-30/bank-of-america-s-countrywide-ordered-to-pay-1-dot-3-billion

shows now that the system has been stabilized DC is starting to claw back some of the money they've given it.

It's not enough of course, but without pitchforks on the street there's not a whole helluva lot our politicians are going to do.

They know who butters their bread; it sure as hell ain't the man on the street.

98   FortWayne   2014 Aug 4, 1:00am  

zzyzzx says

Vicente says

Construction would be crippled without illegals

Construction would cost more, Americans still do this type of work.

There is no job that an American won't do. For some reason liberals believe that certain types of work are "too good" for Americans.

This is really an odd thing about liberals. They understand that outsourcing jobs such as engineering and research hurts American jobs. But somehow they can't comprehend that outsourcing construction hurts construction jobs.

Come on people, bricklayers and framers aren't supposed to be 100% taken over by illegals for bigger profit margins. Us lower class Americans need jobs too.

99   HydroCabron   2014 Aug 4, 1:55am  

FortWayne says

They understand that outsourcing jobs such as engineering and research hurts American jobs. But somehow they can't comprehend that outsourcing construction hurts construction jobs.

I'm lost here: Adam Smith said there are no good trade restrictions, and that all borders should be open to trade. This is a central pillar of laissez faire, small government economics which conservatives loudly claim to espouse; indeed, I would wager that conservatives feel they own Adam Smith, and that only they are qualified to speak his principles.

So if you favor protectionism, or hiring by country, in any manner, you are not a conservative, right?

Or is small government only good when it helps you?

100   tatupu70   2014 Aug 4, 2:24am  

FortWayne says

This is really an odd thing about liberals. They understand that outsourcing jobs such as engineering and research hurts American jobs. But somehow they can't comprehend that outsourcing construction hurts construction jobs.

Come on people, bricklayers and framers aren't supposed to be 100% taken over by illegals for bigger profit margins. Us lower class Americans need jobs too.

If anyone from either party really wants to do something about illegal immigration, they would start enforcing laws against companies that hire illegals. If a CEO goes to jail, then see how things change...

101   FortWayne   2014 Aug 4, 2:59am  

HydroCabron says

So if you favor protectionism, or hiring by country, in any manner, you are not a conservative, right?

I'm not Adam Smith, and I don't live in his day and age. Laisse Faire at extreme never worked well for middle class, and I don't support it.

Life has many shades of gray, sometimes I don't like government, and sometimes I do. We all got our sacred cows.

102   MisdemeanorRebel   2014 Aug 4, 3:00am  

HydroCabron says

Adam Smith said there are no good trade restrictions, and that all borders should be open to trade.

He was opposed to the East India Company, Gatherings of Masters (aka Chamber of Commerce, various Industry Groups, Lobbying in General), and supported the free trade in Commodities, but *not* in Manufactures. He never used the term laissez-faire even though he was certainly aware of the term, but in fact wrote against total deregulation.

Neither Smith nor Ricardo ever dreamed that British Factories would be outsourced, and so never commented upon it. I believe they would have thought it sheer folly. They were well aware of where the added value was. Their only use of trade was to compare the trade of agricultural goods, which are subject to the climate, soil, and other fixed qualities of the nations.

Read Smith, don't get it second hand from Econalchemist Neoclassical Astrologist Skull-measurers (Skull Measuring and Astrology also use math)

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