I remember when Americans considered becoming POTUS the pinnacle of success. I guess not so if you're a Republican...it's just a placeholder until you can land a better lobbying job or book deal.

.

smug

Millionaires-in-Chief
The top White House contenders are a lot richer than the rest of us. Here's where they got it...and where it goes.
By Marlys Harris, Money Magazine senior editor

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0712/gallery.candidates.moneymag/5.html


No. To be successful is to be born with a silver spoon in the mouth...

"But Mr. Speaker - - - they voted for you, didn't they?!'

for their president.

Let me lie to you while looking into your eyes.

There is at least a 50:50 probability that Mitt would not have been a "success" if he had come from the opposite end of the political/economic spectrum.

This country needs a long honest and very difficult discussion about what "success" means.

not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

The most I can see for him is manager (maybe) at a used-car lot where his unctuousness and smarmy false cheer might rope in a few suckers.

T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" comes to mind:

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

all the crazy mirrors.

I was referring to my own post (speculating about a Mitt without the silver spoon) as being off topic in relation to the OP and thereby apologizing for distracting from the thrust of the OP (or even hijacking it, perish the notion).

Your reference to that poem shows that we are much closer than I assumed.

the truth . . .

and I'm over 60 now and can still recite that poem in its entirety.

toward e.e. cummings:

“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ’tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

OR

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

Isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds)of socks not to
mention fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

http://allpoetry.com and search on e.e. cummings

as is another of my favorites, Dylan Thomas.

I like to memorize poetry, because it makes it available to me whenever I want it.

I don't know what Eliot's politics were, but I agree that the outlines of conservatism are there, as his being an ex-patriot suggests. In light of that, it's interesting that, amongst other things, impotence, physical & psychological, seems to be a consistent theme in The Hollow Men, The Waste Land, and, obviously, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.

Don't let the conservatism turn you off; Burnt Norton IS stunning. Too big for me to memorize, though, except for the following, which seems to offer the suggestion of some "third" thing that can evoke a phoenix out of the ashes:

We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate, when the last of Earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning. At the source of the longest river,
The voice of the hidden waterfall, and the children in the apple-tree,
Not known, because not looked for, but heard, half-heard in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always ---
A condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.
And all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded into the crowned knot of fire,
And the fire and the rose are one.

I should read that every day.

while over the past decade Romney has lost a high profile Senate and Presidential race and only eeked out this win over a very weak field.

just because they think there's a socialist Muslim in the White House.

... who became president of the prejudice-beyond-belief USA


is a loser....


Uh huh.



Go cry about it over your drink, Bohner.

like so many others have forgotten the path they went through. One is Justice Thomas. Affirmative Action helped Thomas, but he is against it now. Same with the others, like Paul Ryan, who I believe needed government assistance. These people were helped by the government as well as the community, but don't want the goverrment to help others. Its total selfishness, and total Ayn Rand teachings.

They claim how "Christian" they are, but go with almost all of the 7 deadly sins. Mittens - a effing liar

A corporate raider who has left a trail of dead behind him?

I know for a fact that my main client (GC) started off at $650M in debt when they first worked with Bain on a leveraged buyout, and now they're $1.3B in debt to Bain some years later. Bain won't let them die until after the election so Mittens isn't embarrassed, but I'll be taken for at least $60K when that happens. And that's the way things are when Mittens does business. He takes off at high speed, brown fluid runs down the windshield, and you get the hose.

Last edited Wed May 23, 2012, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)

In the 1980's, Reagan determined to govern through deregulation and privatization, pursued a full on assault of the unions. In the 1990's Gingrich and Boehner set out to deregulate wall street. By 2000, deregulation red flags were being set off with the ENRON energy scandal. If you don't remember: ENRON manufactured rolling blackouts on the West Coast so people wouldn't complain when their energy bills rates spiked up wards while ENRON traded energy stock on wall street.

In 1998, Gingrich and Boehner were working to repeal Glass-Steagall. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was pushing for passage of a financial-services deregulation bill by Easter. Boehner had his back every step of the way. The bill, a compromise cobbled by Representative John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), would give brokers a boost, permitting them to acquire banks, which have the power to lend and take federally insured deposits.

John Boehner cried when he became Speaker of the House because he didn't think people would be dumb enough to allow a career politician, like himself, to rise to such a position of power after helping repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, a crucial firewall between banks and investment firms which had protected consumers from financial calamity since the aftermath of the Great Depression. Newt Gingrich even had the nerve to run for President, but ended his campaign by filing bankruptcy.

All this deregulation and privatization set the stage for people like Mitt Romney to go to work siphoning millions from the middle class. He made his money through managed bankruptcies. He bought businesses, laid off off workers, outsourced their jobs, and pocketed their pensions. The money he took from them was parked in swiss bank accounts, offshore accounts, and in the bahamas. Quite an accomplishment.

He was elected the President of the Screen Actors Guild; a union!!!

Look at the elections of Rockefeller, Perot, etc. B/T/W where
is your tax return Mr Romney? Is there some disclosure there
that you think might expose your "vulture capitalistic" activities?

First, Obama is too cool while simultaneously a loser. I guess this makes sense to people who insist he is a Muslim but got his marching orders from a preacher while sitting in church on Sunday.

... having a good job, raising a family in a comfortable home, being part of community and having friends, and not wanting for anything (because your income was enough to provide for everything you needed) -- in short, the "American Dream"? Today, the GOP wants you to believe that being successful only applies to making money -- like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol -- and if you haven't even made your first million yet, then you, dear American, are a loser.

=======================

if i'd been born with several million dollars in my diapers like romney and trump.

Born rich, pampered and tutored with access to the best of everything, who could loose.

Most of us are born poor, live poor and eventually die after years of struggle
and hard luck.

May the trust fund babies all BURN !

That Boehner attended one of the best private high schools in southwest ohio. Its not like he was going through metal detectors or eating dinner at the food pantry.

thing to say about the President Of The United States!
Hey Boner... Can we play this clip back to you in November when Obama wins again and you are(hopefully) thrown out on your blubbering orange ass!!??

I should know, I live in Ohio's 8th Congressional District and he's my representative. It's unfortunate but true.

Romney's work at Bain, where forced bankrupcy cost thousands and thousands of jobs displays Romney's character as well. It was always all about the almighty dollar with Romney. No compassion, no character. He was even ruthless when it came to the family dog, for crying out loud. His dad worked for Nixon and Mitt learned those Nixon lessons quite well.

Was this Boehner's way of dissing Romney? Obama is a winner so just who is Boehner comparing Romney to or is he calling Romney a loser in a subtle way?

As in the "loser" who was elected President of the most powerful country on the planet? As in the "loser" who showed every American that they can succeed despite the obstacles of institutional racism?

They make this stuff up as they go along. This is why I do not watch TV. Some politicians deliver great comedy. The average sitcom cannot compete with the workings of the GOP machine.

LawdHaMercy!!!

I don't SEE Boehner in the oval office's chair. Go back to your bar stool, loser!

sitting on a stool mumbling incoherently about the world around him. you want to stay away from him as far as you can but he keeps moving closer as if he`s your new best friend...

So working your way through Harvard, becoming the first Black President of the law review, becoming President of the United states isn't successful?


Ya bastard, don't even give Obama credit for successfully winning the highest office in the country. You're really a prick aintcha?

You can't do anything anymore because you're at the mercy of the twiddling nutters from the Tea Party.

Is that basically what Boehner is saying? That's an ad waiting to happen.

n/t

<The American people do not want to vote for a loser," Boehner told CNN's "State of the Union with Candy Crowley." "They don't want to vote for someone who hasn't been successful>

That's why they had to steal it two times for Dubya

I feel sorry for Mittens. NOT!!!!!

This guy is a total idiot. Nothing but a blowhard, with nothing to back up his claims. Has he been asleep the past 3.5 years? Nevermind, we all know that answer. He was either crying or sleeping. How can he not give Obama credit for all he's done for the American people over this time frame? I'll tell you why. He's a closet racist. The GOP makes me sick to my stomach. They live their rich lifestyle, in a make believe world.

Seriously! He's the worst House Speaker in almost 100 years.

He is totally incompetent. Can the good people of Ohio get rid of him?

McCain lost to Obama. So what does that make Romney?

I mean--McCain? Romney more out of touch than McCain.

not that Boehner would know.

I'd say that qualifies him as A LOSER.