Romney to America: "Keep your mitts of my free stuff"

As bad as Mitt Romney's campaign for president was, and it was quite dreadful, it pales in comparison to his classless explanation for his shellacking, given a week after he disappeared behind the gates of one of his spectacular residences. He simply trotted out the scurrilous GOP talking point that surfaced within hours of President Obama's overwhelming Electoral College and 3.4 million popular vote margin: it was all due to the "free stuff" the President promised the less fortunate.

 

As examples he listed administration efforts to reduce onerous debt on student loans which has become an anchor on our educational system; access to contraception for millions of women in need; and ability of young people under 26 to stay on their parents' health insurance plans. Romney remains oblivious to the trillions of dollars in undeserved tax cuts  showered upon our wealthiest citizens, including Mitt himself, during the past 11 years and actually campaigned on increasing this unconscionable largess. Romney's "free stuff" manta quite simply echoes the entire GOP playbook of using code to imply that all the non-white and non-wealthy folks are being bribed away from supporting a candidate and a party dedicated to "getting it all" for America's entitled ruling class. He even singled out African Americans and Latinos as the targeted groups to be bribed for their vote.

 

When a presidential election is over, it is critical that the loser display class and grace to help heal the inherent divisiveness a campaign brings. Having followed every presidential campaign since 1952, I was shocked and disappointed that Romney was the first to jettison this time honored hallmark of our democracy. At a time when America must heal its divide to surmount its economic malaise, Romney poured gasoline on the fire of class division he campaigned upon. He need only go back four years and view a tape of John McCain's display of class and grace in his concession speech after America elected our first African American president.

 

Sadly, in all his 65 years, Romney has failed to grasp the concept that character is revealed less in how you handle victory, but in how you act when the battle is lost and progress requires honesty, healing and acceptance.

What's really in that GOP big tent?

The GOP has spent the last few years trying to convince voters that the GOP has a big tent, meaning that every racial, ethnic and interest group is welcome and well represented.

Let's see how that worked out in the 2012 presidential election.

President Obama won 55% of the women's vote
President Obama won 60% of the youth vote
President Obama won 73% of the Latino vote
President Obama won 77% of the gay vote
President Obama won 85% of the Asian vote
President Obama won 93% of the black vote

Mitt Romney did win 60% of the white vote. Interestingly, that was the same percentage of the white vote George H.W. Bush won in 1988. With his 60% of the white vote, Bush Sr. won 426 electoral votes while Romney's 60% of the white vote got him a measly 206. Do we detect a declining demographic here?

Moral of the election: To paraphrase the most famous quote from the movie Jaws: "You're gonna need a smaller tent".

Also published in the Kane County Chronicle, November 20, 2012

The venial sins of David Patraeus

Upon hearing that famous former Iraq war general David Patraeus resigned as head of the CIA due to an extra marital affair, my first reaction was, "What's the fuss". Only later was it revealed that extra marital affairs, like being gay, is frowned upon in the "Spook" industry because of the possibility of blackmail. Tawdry tidbits are now surfacing that his paramour, gorgeous Patraeus biographer and Afghanistan jogging partner Paula Broadwell, was being investigated by the FBI after another female acquaintance of Patraeus complained of email harassment from Ms. Broadwell. Do we hear a "cat fight"? The investigation led to the affair with Patraeus, which quickly escalated to a potential classified security leak investigation.

No matter what additional salacious morsels come forth, my beef with Patraeus has nothing to do with his romantic shenanigans. He's a sinner in my book for his participation in prolonging our criminal Iraq war. He knew full well, like every other person who bothered to think, that it was a made up war of conquest by the Bush Administration war cabinet including the President, Vice President, Defense Secretary, National Security Advisor and a posse of Neocon advisors. When the Iraq war was collapsing in 2006, Gen. Patraeus was tapped to be the face of America's face saving measure called the "Surge". Officially known as "The New Way Forward", the Surge poured 20,000 more soldiers into the war and extended the tours of the hundred thousand plus troops already there to prevent a complete collapse of our Iraqi war of conquest and the Bush Administration's place in history.

Patraeus was lionized as a military genius for developing theories of counter insurgency that he applied as the leader of the Surge. Virtually the entire government and corporate media fell in line and created the fairy tale that Patraeus almost single handedly turned an imminent Iraq loss into a win. He appeared anywhere and everywhere to accept the praise and vaulted from a two star to a four star general. He was even touted as a possible presidential contender.

Patraeus was asked to perform the same surge miracle in Afghanistan after Gen. Stanley Mc Chrystal was summarily fired by President Obama for disparaging public remarks Mc Chrystal made about his superiors. Although Patraeus' Surge in Afghanistan has been a resounding bust, he was persuaded to retire from the Army to assume the critical job of CIA director. After 14 months, his apparent dueling girlfriends put an ignominious end to his 38 year military and CIA career.

Decades ago this former Catholic was taught about little or venial sins, and the mighty transgressions known as Mortal Sins. What Patraeus did or didn't do in his private life are, at most, venial sins. His actions to put lipstick on the pig of our criminal Iraq war constitute Mortal Sins. The 1,000 US soldiers who needlessly died because this war was senselessly prolonged are a testament to how mortal his sins were.