Mitt Gaffe-ney?

Corporations are people, my friend

Many find Presidential candidate Mitt Romney petulant and secretive about his personal income, but at least the US electorate has a compendium of public statements to gather insight into his character:

• Corporations are people, my friend…of course they are. (August 2011)
• I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. (January 2012)
• I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. (January 2012)
• He [President Obama] says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people. (June 2012)
• Let Detroit Go Bankrupt (Romney's New York Times op-ed 2008)
• I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this [automotive] industry's come back. (May 2012)
• You can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye - i.e., if GM, Ford and Chrysler got a government bailout (Romney's New York Times op-ed 2008)
• I'll tell you what, ten-thousand bucks? $10,000 bet? (December 2011) - Romney's wager following disagreement with Rick Perry about health care.
• I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed. (2011) --- speaking to unemployed people in Florida (Romney's net worth is over $200 million). 
• [My wife] drives a couple of Cadillacs. (February 2012 in Michigan) 
• I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love. (January 2012)

Mitt, the Presidential candidate, has become a fount of tone-deaf gaffes. Mr. Romney seems like an automaton with intractable bugs in his communication software.

If elected, Romney hopes to further the interests of the 1%. The rest of...he'd like to fire. Evidence from his campaign suggest he will gleefully abandon the interests of the other 99%.

Question to @MittRomney on Twitter:

If corporations are people, what kind of a parent would name their kid Lockheed or Northrup Grumman?

Right-Wing Hand-Basket

About 27,000 people (or 1/100th of one percent of the US population) spent more than $10,000 to influence elections during the 2010 election cycle.

I invite you to peruse the ten most influential Daddy Warbucks in 2010 and consider their political axes (from The Who's Who of Top Political Donors):

1. Bob Perry. CEO of Perry Homes. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
2. Wayne Hughes. Owner and chairman of Public Storage, Inc. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
3. Fred Eshelman. CEO of Pharmaceutical Product Development. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
4. Robert Rowling. CEO and Chairman of TRT Holdings. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
5. Donald Sussman. Chairman of the holding company Paloma Partners. Moderate. Tax dodger.
6. John Ricketts. Founder and board member of TD Ameritrade. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
7. Jerry Perenchio. CEO of the investment firm Chartwell Partners. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
8. Trevor Rees-Jones. President of Chief Oil & Gas. Hater. Right-wing ninny.
9. Rachel Hunter. Treasurer for the organization Media Matters and an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune. Democrat. Moderate.
10. John Childs. Board of Directors for Club for Growth. Hater. Right-wing ninny.

Is it any wonder that the US is going to hell in a right-wing hand-basket?

Kudos to the Sunlight Foundation for shining light on the special interest machinery turning the US into a people-hating Corporatocracy of haves and have-nots.