[Official Thread] OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION

[Sinewmire]

Does anyone have any idea what Obama's plan is? I may be missing things being an oversees casual(ish) observer, but I haven't heard anything Obama's doing to make him sound better than Mittens.

Is he waiting till closer to the elections so that his message will be fresher? Or is he keeping a dignified silence whilst his opponents damn themselves with their own rhetoric? Or what?

[Dalton]

Does anyone have any idea what Obama's plan is? I may be missing things being an oversees casual(ish) observer, but I haven't heard anything Obama's doing to make him sound better than Mittens.

Is he waiting till closer to the elections so that his message will be fresher? Or is he keeping a dignified silence whilst his opponents damn themselves with their own rhetoric? Or what?

He's using Romney's words against him in various attack ads.

[TimothyC]

At the very least, Biden can buy Obama time to regroup and re-energize.

My worry is that the damage from the first debate has already been done due to the early voting that's begun in Ohio. But we'll see.

According to the latest NBC/WSJ/Marist polls, early voting in Ohio has been predominantly among Obama supporters 63-37.

The GOP is however doing better than last time for absentee ballot requests, and the early voting number doesn't mean anything without historical data.

That is, if the numbers were 50-50 back in 2008, then this is good for the President, but if they were 75-25, that's bad.

[Dalton]

716 billion is the Lie That Won't Die.

[JME2]

Yeah, my aunt and I were yelling at the radio when Ryan brought that up last night. Fucking idiot.

[Chirios]

From a rightwing person:

I don't usually argue or even discuss religion or politics but you are so off base it's sad. At least Romney is not wishy-washy. He sticks to his guns.

[Skywalker_T-65]

From another right-wing person

Obama was just 'blame Bush!!' at the debate. Everything Romney said made complete sense.

On a different note...anyone expect the VP debate to actually mean much this time around? Or is it all on Obama in the next couple of debates?

[Mr Bean]

From another right-wing person

Obama was just 'blame Bush!!' at the debate. Everything Romney said made complete sense.

On a different note...anyone expect the VP debate to actually mean much this time around? Or is it all on Obama in the next couple of debates?

The VP debate forms the platform of this weekend's news cycle and most of next weeks. Meanwhile early voting is going on and these performances can inspire people to get out early.

[Dalton]

Romney's poll numbers are pretty high. It doesn't matter if you lie through your teeth as long as it sounds good, I guess.

[Lord MJ]

It's what happens when you have a lot of discontent regarding the economy, the perception that Obama doesn't understand business, an Embassy attack*, and a lackluster debate performance.

Obama has a chance to turn it around next week. But I felt that the first debate was the time that Romney could be finished off, and instead he got new momentum.


* Seems strange, every president prior to Obama suffered far worse attacks then this. In fact, excluding the insurgent attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the single attack in which Americans were killed in the Obama presidency, killed four. Where Bush II had thousands, and Clinton's death toll was in the hundreds.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Obama has a chance to turn it around next week. But I felt that the first debate was the time that Romney could be finished off, and instead he got new momentum.

The first debate was probably the one where Obama had the best chance to stop the spin of corporatist media and other right-wing interests. As it is, in the next debate, Romney gets the benefit of lowered expectations (after all, to deliver one "stunning", "game-changing" debate performance is a lot to ask for. But to do it again ... who do you think Romney is? Robot Jesus?</sarcasm>) As long as he doesn't drool too much, or soil himself on stage, I predict that the talking heads will probably hand him at least a "tie", if not a "slight victory."

[JME2]

It's what happens when you have a lot of discontent regarding the economy, the perception that Obama doesn't understand business, an Embassy attack*, and a lackluster debate performance.

Which is why I have every faith in Americans to vote for Romney just to spite Obama and the Dems like they did in 2010.

He does need to do well in this second debate and pick up where Biden left off. Mittens should never have been allowed to gain this momentum and I still don't know what the hell was wrong with Obama that night.

[FaxModem1]

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/14/romneys ... nomy_plan/

Sunday, Oct 14, 2012 07:00 AM CDT
Romney’s magic economy plan
Romney and his allies say the economy will just come back if he wins -- because the rich are on strike. He's wrong
By Andrew Leonard

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92
more

Topics: 2012 Elections, Business, Fiscal cliff, Mitt Romney, Taxes, U.S. Economy, Business News, Politics News
Romney's magic economy plan (Credit: AP/Evan Vucci)

Mitt Romney gets a lot of guff from his critics for his unwillingness to spell out the details of how he plans to fix the U.S. the economy; how exactly his tax reforms will work, for example, or what precisely he will do in his first 100 days to boost job creation. But the best thing about the Romney agenda is that by his own admission, he doesn’t need a plan. Just getting himself elected is the ticket to prosperity.

Romney was quite clear on this point in his infamous “47 percent” speech. Romney told his audience that “if we win on November 6th there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back, and we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.”

The notion that Romney could spur economic growth “without actually doing anything” invites mockery. The Atlantic’s Matt O’Brien memorably dubbed it “faith-based economic strategy.” At the very least it seemed to betray a breath-taking level of unwarranted hubris. But the key to understanding his boast is to ignore the low-hanging fruit (“without actually doing anything”) and focus on five crucial words: “We’ll see capital come back.”

Romney is referring here to the reluctance of corporations to invest trillions of dollars of cash in productive, job-creating uses. It’s a problem acknowledged by both Democrats and Republicans — American corporations have around $1.8 trillion in cash tucked away in savings accounts or invested in low-yield bonds and ultra-safe government securities. Liberal-minded economists believe that corporations are sitting on all that cash because they see no demand in the general economy for their goods and services. Conservatives argue that the real problem is the prospect of higher taxes and burdensome regulations imposed during a second Obama term.

In fact, conservative pundits and politicians have been arguing for at least a year, to borrow Speaker of the House John Boehner’s felicitious phrasing, that the “job creators in America basically are on strike.” They’re uncertain about the future, and, as conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer argues, “when you don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t invest. We are having a capital strike.”

Romney advisor John Sununu put it bluntly in July:

“I guarantee you that what we are seeing in the private sector is a hoarding of capital. They are waiting to see the results of the presidential election… If President Obama is elected, that capital goes offshore. If Mitt Romney is elected, they buy equipment and they start hiring here.”

If Mitt Romney wins, in other words, “the capital strike ends.”

———

Let’s be honest. It’s not impossible for a change in leadership to spur an economically fruitful change in psychology. After all, it was none other than the liberal hero, John Maynard Keynes, who stressed the importance of “animal spirits” in the economy. Human emotion is a crucial part of consumer confidence. If we’re feeling good, we’re more likely to pull out our credit cards and splurge, thus creating the essential demand that fuels economic growth. If we’re feeling uncertain or anxious — whether about our prospects for keeping our home, or for the quarterly earnings of the corporation that we might leading — we’ll be more cautious.

Here’s how Keynes defined it, in his classic, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”: “A large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations, whether moral or hedonistic or economic. Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive… can only be taken as the result of animal spirits — a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction….”

So let’s be charitable. Maybe all Romney is saying is: If I’m elected, the animals will be happy. People will feel better about themselves, and that will jumpstart the economy.

The funny thing is, the available evidence suggests that Americans are already feeling more optimistic than they’ve been for a long time. On Friday, the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index hit a five year high. Americans are buying cars at a pace not seen in four years. They’re watching their homes appreciate in value for the first time since the bust. Retail sales are growing. Average Americans are doing their part, and the ironic truth is that, most likely, no matter who gets elected president, they’ll probably keep doing so. Neither Romney nor Obama might have to do anything at all in order to enjoy the benefits of a resurgent economy.

Even funnier, the premise that a Romney election will “bring capital back” presupposes that capital has gone away. And despite all those stories about trillions of dollars of “cash on the sidelines” there is scant evidence that a lack of investment opportunities or abundance of regulations is the reason for the hoarding. In fact, it’s not even true that corporations aren’t willing to invest in the future.

Quite the opposite. Here’s something you are unlikely to hear during a Mitt Romney stump speech. Business investment has actually recovered to its pre-recession levels. During the Obama recovery, corporate spending on business equipment and software has grown at a faster rate than during any of the last four economic recoveries. (George Bush’s economic recovery, embarrassingly, registered zero net growth in business equipment and software spending.)

What those companies haven’t been doing is hiring. And there’s a very good reason for that: the economists who point to the problem of demand are right. At least, they’re right if you trust the reports of actual business executives. For three years, the number one complaint cited by small businesses about the current economic climate has been poor sales. Not taxes, not regulation — sales.

Corporations and businesses with an eye to the future had no choice but to buy new computers and other business equipment and new software — during the crunch of the recession, they cut spending so severely that at this point they would be jeopardizing their ability to function efficiently if they didn’t start upgrading. It would have been suicidal to put that off, placing them in a disadvantageous position once the economy started to grow again. But without consumer demand for goods and services, without people walking into stores ready to buy things, there was still no immediate justification for boosting employment rolls.

Interestingly, just in the last month, the number of small businesses citing poor sales as their top complaint dropped into a tie with taxes and regulation — yet another sign that consumer activity is beginning to bubble. And that presents us with an interesting mystery. In 2012, as consumer confidence has grown, with spending in stores rising and auto sales booming, the rate in growth of corporate spending on business equipment and software has actually slowed. Over the last few months the totals for “durable spending” — big ticket purchases usually made by corporations — have also been disappointing. We’re watching a split personality at work — average Americans are becoming more optimistic while corporate America is becoming more pessimistic.

What’s wrong with corporate America? Don’t they see home prices rising and car sales booming? Isn’t it nicer to have steady, albeit weak, job growth instead of the massive hemorrhaging we saw four years ago?

The answer may lie in politics more than in reality. The most obvious explanation for corporate pessimism is the oncoming “fiscal cliff” — the combination of mandatory spending cuts and tax hikes that will kick in if Congress and the White House do not hash out a deal before January 1. Severe fiscal austerity combined with the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts (as well as several additional stimulative measures, such as Obama’s payroll tax cut) will be a kick in the ribs to the U.S. economy. A kick that breaks ribs.

Everyone knows this, and neither Democrats nor Republicans want it to happen. Romney even referenced the possibility in the same passage in which he boasted about how he didn’t have to do anything to improve the economy — “my own view is that if we get the — the ‘Taxageddon,’ as they call it, January 1st, with this president, and with a Congress that can’t work together, it really is frightening, really frightening in my view.”

Romney is not wrong. A congress that can’t work together in the face of a fiscal catastrophe is a scary, scary prospect. But here’s the thing, to avoid that eventuality requires doing something. Just the fact of Romney getting elected isn’t going to change any business executive’s attitude toward the impending fiscal cliff. Hammering out a deal is the only thing that will unlock the checkbooks.

And here’s the irony — the average Americans, the ones who apparently aren’t paying any attention to the oncoming plunge, are actually demonstrating a savvy understanding of politics superior to the executives who are cowering in fear. Because if there’s one thing we should have learned while watching Congress operate the last four years, it’s that no deal gets done until the last second… but, eventually, it does get done. Congress won’t let us plunge over the cliff. There will be lots of rhetoric, and lots of arm-twisting, and the exact nature of the compromises that will be made will shift according to who wins the White House and the changing balance of power in the House and Senate. But it will happen.

Unless, of course, Mitt Romney gets elected and doesn’t actually do anything. Then we’ll all suffer. And the animals won’t be pleased.

Romney's plan is analyzed.

[FaxModem1]

This was published back in July.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/1 ... 76991.html

Illinois City Calls On Mitt Romney To Stop Bain-Owned Company From Outsourcing 170 Local Jobs

Posted: 07/16/2012 3:50 pm Updated: 07/16/2012 8:52 pm
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Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Outsourcing , Video, Mitt Romney Bain Capital, Mitt Romney 2012, Mitt Romney Outsourcing, Romney Bain Outsourcing, Romney Outsourcing, Sensata Technologies, Politics News
Mitt Romney

WASHINGTON -- The city council of Freeport, Ill., approved a resolution Monday evening that will call on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to step in and save roughly 170 local jobs being outsourced by a company owned by Bain Capital.

Last year, Massachusetts-based Sensata Technologies announced that it was closing its Freeport plant by the end of 2012 and shipping the jobs to China. The U.S. positions, the company claimed, would be phased out gradually. Sensata Technologies makes sensors and controls that are used in aircraft and automobiles.

The resolution organized by Sensata employees calls on Romney -- who co-founded Bain -- to "come to Freeport to meet the people directly affected by Bain Capital's outsourcing and to step in and stop the outsourcing of these jobs from Freeport to China."

The city council voted unanimously, 8-0, on Monday to approve the Sensata resolution.

Romney maintains that he left Bain in 1999, even though multiple documents list him as having leadership roles with the company beyond that date.

Regardless of the date that he left, Tom Gaulrapp -- a lifelong resident of Freeport and 33-year employee of Sensata -- said that Romney still bears some responsibility.

"They used his business model," Gaulrapp said. "And the board of directors and most of the officers at Bain Capital were put in place by him. There's an ongoing debate over whether he actually left in 1999 or whether he filed wrong documents to the SEC. In either case, they're still using his business model. He's the one who taught them how to do this. These guys were put there by him. So you can say he doesn't run the day-to-day operations, but he's still at blame for the way they do business."

Democratic Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp (who is distantly related to Tom Gaulrapp) backs the Sensata resolution and predicts that it will pass unanimously before the city council on Monday evening.

"He [Romney] is running for president," said the mayor. "These people felt it was a little hypocritical that he was with Bain Capital, he organized some of the processes, and now he's touring the country ... saying we need to keep jobs here in the United States. And yet for a long time, he made a lot of profits by tearing companies apart and sending them overseas."

A Romney spokesperson reiterated that the governor left Bain in 1999, and said he has no knowledge of the Freeport controversy.

Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) currently represents Freeport, and after redistricting goes into effect, the new congressman will be Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.). Both lawmakers wrote to Sensata CEO Tom Wroe on July 6, urging him to keep the jobs in the U.S.

"I appreciate your comments regarding understanding the competitive pressure facing companies in today's global marketplace and I assure you that we strive to balance our duty to our shareholders with our duty as corporate citizens, just as you strive to balance the interests of your local constituents with that which is best for our country," responded Wroe. "Closing the Freeport facility is the right strategy for our business in order to deliver value to our shareholders and to support our global customers."

Neither Schilling nor Manzullo responded to comment on the Freeport resolution involving Romney.

Tom Gaulrapp wouldn't say who he was planning to vote for in the presidential election, although he said he'd certainly give Romney a close look if he steps in and saves Freeport's jobs. As for what he will do when the Sensata plant closes, Gaulrapp, 54, said he may look at going back to school.

"The Trade Adjustment Act allows us to go back to college, but if there aren't jobs available to use any kind of college education that you might be able to add to your resume, is there really a point to that?" asked Gaulrapp. "Like most of the people in my age group and in this situation, our future is just completely bleak."

UPDATE: 8:49 p.m. -- This story was updated to reflect the city council's vote.

And yesterday, this was posted:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/1 ... a-to-China

Sat Oct 13, 2012 at 08:40 AM PDT
UPDATE: Even More on Bain Moving Sensata to China

by ZwoofFollow
979
permalink 171 Comments / 171 New

Here is more info on Romney/Bain moving Sensata factory to China.

But first, watch this 10 second video.

And then watch the video below the fold...

• Romney makes $450,000 per week from his blind trust.
• Bain is closing a factory and shipping equipment and jobs to China
• The US government has paid $780,000 retraining fired Sensata workers.
• Bain can deduct the expense of moving to China from US taxes.
• US workers at the Sensata factory have to train their Chinese replacements.
• Romney owns about $8 million worth of Bain funds that hold 51 percent of Sensata’s shares.

• These are high-tech, well paid jobs performed by skilled American workers.
• Workers in the Sensata factory in China make 99 cents an hour.
• Chinese laborers work 12 hour shifts, 7 days per week.
• Chinese workers are housed 2 to 3 to a room in barracks
• The American workers set records for profits for Sensata

UPDATE
How Mitt Romney will benefit from closing Sesnata.

As mentioned in the bullet-points above, Bain/Romney will receive tax deductions after closing the factory in Freeport. Huffington Post takes a closer look at the tax benefits for Romney.

• Romney transferred $701,703 worth of Sensata stock to the Tyler Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit controlled by Romney.
• Moving the stock to his nonprofit brings Romney twin benefits. First, he gets to deduct the full value of the stock. At a 35 percent tax rate, that's nearly a $250,000 benefit. At 15 percent, it's just over $100,000.
• Romney is able to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the stock price increase. Romney's returns list no cost for the stock, and indicate he obtained them as part of a partnership interest in Bain. Avoiding capital gains taxes on the full increase would save an additional $100,000.
• In 2010, Romney gifted $170,000 worth of Sensata stock to his charity, saving $25,000 in capital gains taxes that year.
Originally posted to Z. Woof on Sat Oct 13, 2012 at 08:40 AM PDT.
Also republished by The Bain Files.

So, Romney is definitely working towards the best interests of Americans./sarcasm

[Dalton]

Weirdly I've always had the odd notion that corporations have been holding back to hurt Obama, but that's probably an overabundance of cynicism.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well a few (Koch Industries for instance) are flat out saying 'vote for Romney or you're fired'.

[FaxModem1]

Could you provide a link to corroborate that, please?

[Skywalker_T-65]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/koch ... ction.html

Yeah its Yahoo, but I'm somewhat limited on time, so I only really see articles when I check my email. And I don't think it explicitly says they will be fired, but its very heavily slanted that way.

[JME2]

Yay, corporate blackmail...

[Dalton]

The guy behind that obnoxious Versailles mansion said something similar. Douchebaggery

[Flagg]

Weirdly I've always had the odd notion that corporations have been holding back to hurt Obama, but that's probably an overabundance of cynicism.

I dunno man, something tells me they are sitting on $2 trillion for purely sound business reasons.

[Flagg]

Saw this on FB. Figured it was worth posting.

[Lord MJ]

So I'm reading that Romney now has a lead among likely voters in the battleground states, and more telling is that women voters are now warming up to Romney. Obama and Romney are tied among women, while Romney has a significant lead amongst men. Which doesn't bode well for Obama. I can't for the life of me figure out what Obama was thinking in the debate a couple weeks ago.

The reason for the women coming around to Romney, is that in addition to Romney becoming more personable to female voters, married women, and married couples in general favor Romney over the president (and it's been that way for months), furthermore mothers are increasingly concerned with the economy and therefore are more likely to be attracted to Romney as a result. How the VP debate will factor into this remains to be seen. Though there has been talk about women being turned off to Joe Biden's performance.

Tomorrow is pretty much the last big chance Obama has to win over people and stop the bleeding. A less than excellent performance tomorrow, and it's pretty much a wrap.

[The Romulan Republic]

Things can change quickly. Not long ago it looked like Romney was screwed.

Also, according to this Obama still has a pretty substantial advantage, though maybe its out of date: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2012/ecalculator#_

Edited.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Is Romney doing better than he was a few weeks ago? Significantly. Is Romney the favourite to win the election? Not yet.

The Obama campaign has already "stopped the bleeding;" over the past few days, the polling has shifted back to mildly favourable towards Obama. That's a lot worse than he was before the debate but it's still an improvement. Obviously if he takes another hit like the last debates things will not be looking good for his campaign, but damage control has already been done for now.