Asia Times: Down and out in the Romney Motel

http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/NK07Aa01.html



Down and out in the Romney Motel
By Pepe Escobar
Nov 7, 2012

SELIGMAN, Arizona - I was kind of looking for it, for days - and then I found it, on Route 66, on my way to election night in a Las Vegas casino; the Romney motel. What more fitting metaphor to that billion-dollar campaign? In and out; all things to all people; preferably cash (so the profits may be shipped to the Cayman islands); a sleepover and then on to other things, from the "5-point plan" to Binders Full of Women, from "Corporations are people" to the 47%, from the US$10,000 bet to a trade/currency war with China on day one.

The Romney motel is a lonely echo of a bygone era, with plenty of vacancy, pets OK (even the strapped-to-the roof kind); as for the 47% on the move, be it the U-Haul or the trucker kind, better park in rear. The motel is as vacant as the Romney campaign might be if today's election follows logic. According to polling guru Nate Silver, Obama now stands a whopping 92.2% chance of winning, up almost 20 points over the past week.

The Romney motel/campaign motto boils down to a fallacy; the wealthy - like Mitt - should not be taxed because they will invest for the common good. The recent historical record - especially the eight years of Dubya - reveal no altruism. According to the Brookings Institution, the concentration of wealth in the US has never been higher since the late 1920s. The 1% got richer by 275% between 1979 and 2007; the 20% poorer only managed to accrue a paltry 18%. Gallup has recently discovered the obvious; only 44% of Americans believe the next generation will enjoy a better life than their parents.

Incidentally, this is also what the Roving Eyemobile - a made in USA machine - learned by itself after gobbling up almost 6,000 miles (9,500 kilometers) in six states in the southwest; California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.