Cliff Kincaid
Why is the Marxist beating the capitalist?
By Cliff Kincaid
It sounded to some Republicans like a good match-up and one they could win. In order to defeat a Marxist president, run a successful businessman or capitalist against him. The battle has been described as Bain Capital vs. Das Kapital. Bain Capital is the name of Romney's private equity firm and Das Kapital was a critique of capitalism by Karl Marx. So far, it looks like Marxism is winning.
Some Republicans don't want to hear this. They are blaming the polls. They are hoping and praying that there is a "silent majority" out there ready to evict Obama from the White House.
But Doug Schoen, appearing on Fox News, says that while there may be some bias in the sampling, the Obama lead is real. It appears that the American people perceive Romney's version of Big Business Republicanism to be more of a threat than revolutionary Marxism. Liberal media bias can be blamed for some of this. But a big part of the problem is Romney himself. He is not an ordinary capitalist or businessman.
If Obama has secrets — and we know he has deliberately obscured his Marxist background and communist connections — Romney has his own secrets he is determined to hide.
For example, Romney has been criticizing the Obama Administration for failing to challenge China's unfair trading practices as information has leaked out indicating that Romney and his family trust have invested in Chinese companies over the years, including the Chinese state-owned oil company. This disclosure has given Obama a big opening that he is exploiting in Ohio and other key states.
"If Romney really wanted China to stop stealing, why would he send them his money?" asks the Obama ad.
Whatever you think of Obama and his policy of appeasing China, Russia, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other U.S. adversaries or enemies, the disclosures about Romney's investments in China are devastating.
For conservatives, the revelations suggest that Romney's brand of capitalism is of the Armand Hammer variety — oblivious to the dangers of how the West builds up its enemies. Hammer, of course, deliberately aided the Soviet Union.
Romney's conservative Republican adversaries in the primaries warned us about the Romney Achilles' heel of controversial investments and financial manipulations. But the party bosses wanted Romney as the nominee. Romney's conservative rivals were destroyed with mysterious Super PAC money.
On top of this China scandal, Romney kissed Bill Clinton's ring at the Clinton Global Initiative, where he defended the concept of foreign aid. He did not explain why the U.S. should continue "foreign assistance" to the rest of the world as long as we are going broke.
Again, Romney had a chance to draw a sharp contrast with Obama and failed to do so. This is part of the Karl Rove strategy of moving to the left. Rove is also behind the official GOP strategy of refusing to back conservative Todd Akin in the Missouri Senate race.
Pandering to the disgraced and impeached former president, Romney said, "If there's one thing we've learned this election season, it's that a few words from Bill Clinton can do any man a lot of good." Romney joked that he would benefit from a "bounce" in the polls after showing up at the Clinton event.
There was no bounce. And if Romney is not careful, he will sink even further behind as more conservatives openly abandon him and his campaign. In Virginia, where conservative Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode is on the ballot and already getting 2 percent, this could be fatal to Romney.
Some conservatives are now starting to realize that Romney's anticipated poor showing against Obama could jeopardize efforts to take control of the Senate away from the Democrats.
Even if you think the recent polls showing a widening Obama lead in the key states are wrong, Mitt Romney's allies concede that Romney is not ahead. They are now saying they think he may have a chance to win if he does well in the debates. Before long, however, pessimism may turn to panic.
Conservatives are already concentrating on winning Senate seats. In fact, former Romney rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are backing Todd Akin in Missouri, in open defiance of Romney and the GOP party bosses who abandoned Akin after he made some confusing statements about abortion. Senator Jim DeMint is also backing Akin.
It is possible that Romney, despite his liabilities, could turn the campaign around if he took the fight to Obama and directly branded him a socialist. Although he is not an ideological conservative, he could try to make the campaign into a stark choice. But Romney is being advised not to do this by Karl Rove and others. They are telling Romney he has to move to the left and get the votes of those who backed Obama in 2008. This explains his appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Four years after a financial meltdown brought on by Big Government and Big Business, it looks like many people are going to opt for Big Government and Obama. For the first time in American history, Marxism may achieve a national victory at the polls. It will be a turning point for America, leaving the Republican Party in tatters.
After that, Rove, once known as "Bush's Brain," will try to pick up the pieces and get the Republicans behind another Bush, Jeb Bush, for a presidential run in 2016. Romney adviser Ed Gillespie may return to his "bipartisan lobbying firm," QGA, run in partnership with former Bill Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn. Gillespie is said to have "left" the firm in 2007 when he went to work for George W. Bush, but his name is still the "G" in QGA.
By the way, QGA's clients include News Corporation, parent of Fox News; the International Monetary Fund; and AARP, which booed Romney running mate Paul Ryan at its recent national convention when he called for repeal of Obamacare.
As predicted by this columnist, the pick of Ryan has proven to be a disaster, as it has enabled Obama to make an issue of Ryan's proposed changes to Medicare. The result: seniors are breaking for Obama and Florida is another state slipping away from Romney.
Incredibly, Romney advisers had to have told Ryan to go to the AARP convention, where he earned the headlines about being booed by seniors. Again, as I argued in a previous column, it is as if the Romney campaign is trying to lose.
© Cliff Kincaid
September 28, 2012
It sounded to some Republicans like a good match-up and one they could win. In order to defeat a Marxist president, run a successful businessman or capitalist against him. The battle has been described as Bain Capital vs. Das Kapital. Bain Capital is the name of Romney's private equity firm and Das Kapital was a critique of capitalism by Karl Marx. So far, it looks like Marxism is winning.
Some Republicans don't want to hear this. They are blaming the polls. They are hoping and praying that there is a "silent majority" out there ready to evict Obama from the White House.
But Doug Schoen, appearing on Fox News, says that while there may be some bias in the sampling, the Obama lead is real. It appears that the American people perceive Romney's version of Big Business Republicanism to be more of a threat than revolutionary Marxism. Liberal media bias can be blamed for some of this. But a big part of the problem is Romney himself. He is not an ordinary capitalist or businessman.
If Obama has secrets — and we know he has deliberately obscured his Marxist background and communist connections — Romney has his own secrets he is determined to hide.
For example, Romney has been criticizing the Obama Administration for failing to challenge China's unfair trading practices as information has leaked out indicating that Romney and his family trust have invested in Chinese companies over the years, including the Chinese state-owned oil company. This disclosure has given Obama a big opening that he is exploiting in Ohio and other key states.
"If Romney really wanted China to stop stealing, why would he send them his money?" asks the Obama ad.
Whatever you think of Obama and his policy of appeasing China, Russia, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other U.S. adversaries or enemies, the disclosures about Romney's investments in China are devastating.
For conservatives, the revelations suggest that Romney's brand of capitalism is of the Armand Hammer variety — oblivious to the dangers of how the West builds up its enemies. Hammer, of course, deliberately aided the Soviet Union.
Romney's conservative Republican adversaries in the primaries warned us about the Romney Achilles' heel of controversial investments and financial manipulations. But the party bosses wanted Romney as the nominee. Romney's conservative rivals were destroyed with mysterious Super PAC money.
On top of this China scandal, Romney kissed Bill Clinton's ring at the Clinton Global Initiative, where he defended the concept of foreign aid. He did not explain why the U.S. should continue "foreign assistance" to the rest of the world as long as we are going broke.
Again, Romney had a chance to draw a sharp contrast with Obama and failed to do so. This is part of the Karl Rove strategy of moving to the left. Rove is also behind the official GOP strategy of refusing to back conservative Todd Akin in the Missouri Senate race.
Pandering to the disgraced and impeached former president, Romney said, "If there's one thing we've learned this election season, it's that a few words from Bill Clinton can do any man a lot of good." Romney joked that he would benefit from a "bounce" in the polls after showing up at the Clinton event.
There was no bounce. And if Romney is not careful, he will sink even further behind as more conservatives openly abandon him and his campaign. In Virginia, where conservative Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode is on the ballot and already getting 2 percent, this could be fatal to Romney.
Some conservatives are now starting to realize that Romney's anticipated poor showing against Obama could jeopardize efforts to take control of the Senate away from the Democrats.
Even if you think the recent polls showing a widening Obama lead in the key states are wrong, Mitt Romney's allies concede that Romney is not ahead. They are now saying they think he may have a chance to win if he does well in the debates. Before long, however, pessimism may turn to panic.
Conservatives are already concentrating on winning Senate seats. In fact, former Romney rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are backing Todd Akin in Missouri, in open defiance of Romney and the GOP party bosses who abandoned Akin after he made some confusing statements about abortion. Senator Jim DeMint is also backing Akin.
It is possible that Romney, despite his liabilities, could turn the campaign around if he took the fight to Obama and directly branded him a socialist. Although he is not an ideological conservative, he could try to make the campaign into a stark choice. But Romney is being advised not to do this by Karl Rove and others. They are telling Romney he has to move to the left and get the votes of those who backed Obama in 2008. This explains his appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Four years after a financial meltdown brought on by Big Government and Big Business, it looks like many people are going to opt for Big Government and Obama. For the first time in American history, Marxism may achieve a national victory at the polls. It will be a turning point for America, leaving the Republican Party in tatters.
After that, Rove, once known as "Bush's Brain," will try to pick up the pieces and get the Republicans behind another Bush, Jeb Bush, for a presidential run in 2016. Romney adviser Ed Gillespie may return to his "bipartisan lobbying firm," QGA, run in partnership with former Bill Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn. Gillespie is said to have "left" the firm in 2007 when he went to work for George W. Bush, but his name is still the "G" in QGA.
By the way, QGA's clients include News Corporation, parent of Fox News; the International Monetary Fund; and AARP, which booed Romney running mate Paul Ryan at its recent national convention when he called for repeal of Obamacare.
As predicted by this columnist, the pick of Ryan has proven to be a disaster, as it has enabled Obama to make an issue of Ryan's proposed changes to Medicare. The result: seniors are breaking for Obama and Florida is another state slipping away from Romney.
Incredibly, Romney advisers had to have told Ryan to go to the AARP convention, where he earned the headlines about being booed by seniors. Again, as I argued in a previous column, it is as if the Romney campaign is trying to lose.
© Cliff Kincaid
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
