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The progress of humanity has been greatly enhanced by those who, after thoughtful analysis, expressed views that are contrary to popular thought. Persons like Voltaire, Galileo, Socrates, Nietzsche, and the father of both the American and French revolutions, the great Thomas Paine, whose "Rights of Man" and "Age of Reason" would make him the contrarian of all time in my book.



It is in the spirit of these polemicists that I create this blog. It is my intent to challenge popular suppositions. While it will become evident that I am generally a progressive liberal, hopefully I will have the courage to take opposing viewpoints to those of my own comrades when appropriate.



No comments will be deleted based solely on the political , social, economic or religious views you may have. In fact I encourage thoughtful discourse. I will however promptly remove any postings that contain overtly vulgar comments, racial slurs, hate speech of any kind, or multiple postings of "conspiracy theories". Though not required, please post links for references to the point you are trying to make, or at the least, give us an idea of where you found the information that supports your cause or claim.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Romney Campaign: Chaos Revisited?

Something is amiss in the G.O.P. the last few weeks and it begs the question as to what may be going on behind the scenes. I can't help but notice that the Romney campaign is stumbling off-message, and at a point in the race you would expect the Republican Party old-line to be coalescing behind their candidate there are appearing cracks. In a word this is "startling".

 From the outset of Romney's candidacy in the Republican primaries it was properly noted by political experts that he was the most likely nominee in that he had a highly organized team of "boots on the ground" staff with extensive campaign experience. The one thing you could say about Mitt was that he possessed an uncanny ability and discipline to stay on message. Ultimately it was this consistency that helped him prevail against the onslaught of ultra-conservative and libertarian candidates. After the Palin debacle of 2008 there was nothing party regulars wanted more than "careful and deliberate".

 Which makes the events of the past several weeks even more curious. With less than 100 days until the election your candidate is doing reasonably well in the polls, you're outspending your opponent two to one with ads that seem to be effective and are winning the fund-raising battle, and your party convention is right around the corner with all the free news coverage you could ever hope for. And what happens? Your candidate makes what proves to be a disastrous trip to Europe and Israel spreading gaffes like confetti everywhere he stops. Who advised Mitt to take THIS trip at THIS time anyway? Uncharacteristic of Romney or his organization. It would be bad enough if this were just an isolated mistake. But it's not. These gaffes are starting to look like a snowball gaining momentum, beginning with the "retroactive retirement" statement, one of the most ludicrous explanations I've ever heard.

 I suppose a case could be made that these current troubles all began with Romney's refusal to release more tax returns. I would have expected some of the new Tea Party types to hurl some criticism. But Chuck Grassley? Haley Barbour? Doesn't make sense. Why would old-line Republican party regulars join the Democrats hail-storm of demands for transparancy at this time? Similarly I would not have expected the cutting commentary from pens of conservative journalists Billy Kristol and George Will. They could have easily just kept their mouths shut. But they didn't.

 I believe there are some serious unknowns here. Could it be that Romney received the government amnesty in 2009 for his now closed Swiss bank account? If he did, there are legal questions as to whether a person can hold high office if he received amnesty for what would have been a felony. Or could it be that he really did lie to the SEC about his involvement with Bain Capital? Or did he pay no taxes at all in 2009? Someone out there knows the answers to these questions. Are Republican regulars aware of this person that could potentially let the cat out of the bag? Will we see a melt-down at the Republican Convention?

 Stay tuned.......