2012 Tuesday: Obama wants the election to be about a topic he doesn’t understand
In Chicago yesterday, President Obama described the essence of his campaign against Mitt Romney. Asked during a press conference about his campaign ads criticizing Romney’s record at Bain Capital in the 1980s and ’90s, Obama disagreed with fellow Democrats’ advice to focus on other issues:
[T]his is not a distraction. This is what this campaign is going to be about — is what is a strategy for us to move this country forward in a way where everybody can succeed?
Well, now. That’s just completely different from every other presidential campaign in history…
Some commentary has focused on what Obama said just before that: his description of the job of president vs. the job of a private equity CEO. And with good reason. There is plenty to address: from his assertion that the president should be involved in helping individual communities plan their economic development, to the obvious conclusion that the job, as he’s described it, is not one he’s done particularly well given the persistent sluggishness of the job market and the economy more broadly.
But what interested me was his summary of private equity:
Now, I think my view of private equity is that it is set up to maximize profits. And that’s a healthy part of the free market. That’s part of the role of a lot of business people. That’s not unique to private equity. And as I think my representatives have said repeatedly, and I will say today, I think there are folks who do good work in that area. And there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries, but understand that their priority is to maximize profits. And that’s not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers.
Contra Cory Booker, Harold Ford Jr. and Steve Rattner — who are among the Obama supporters who cautioned him against demonizing private equity — the best reason for Obama to avoid the topic is that he sounds wholly uncomfortable on such foreign terrain.
His dissection of the place of profits in an economy supposedly based on free enterprise comes off like the remarks of an anthropologist recently returned from spending a year among some exotic, savage tribe. But profitability is a concept that comes naturally to most Americans because, unlike Obama, most of us have worked for for-profit enterprises.
Instead, Obama says “maximize profits” as if it’s one element among many when it comes to business (it’s just “part of the role of a lot of business people,” with the others ostensibly at liberty to ignore revenues and expenses), as if he grudgingly acknowledges some possibility that profits can co-exist with a healthy economy.
Wrong. Profits are indispensable to a healthy economy.
If a company is not trying to “maximize profits,” it is not a) trying to satisfy the most customers and thereby earn their business; b) recruiting and retaining the work force needed to deliver appealing products or services; or c) creating or freeing up the capital needed to expand its business.
Oh, and because we know Obama puts a premium on higher tax revenues: “Maximized profits” also mean more earnings for government to tax.
This is the story of America’s economic power. We are not the world’s most important economy, and the most prosperous people, because there are business people for whom “maximizing profits” is not “part of their role.” On the contrary. It’s because the profit motive — and, importantly, the greater freedom from government that our enterprises historically have had to pursue it — has ensured we have gotten the most out of our scarce resources.
Profits are not something to be merely tolerated as long as everything turns out OK for everyone else. They are the best motivation known to man to put as many people and resources as possible to productive work.
And creating new industries, with new jobs, is not incidental to free enterprise. Delivering novel products or services is not the only way to make money, but it is a time-tested way to do so.
This also happens to be the story of Bain Capital. Yes, it invested in businesses that couldn’t be turned around — that is, made profitable — and which had to be closed. But it also found great success in other ventures, some of which still employ tens of thousands of Americans.
Obama wants you to think the exceptions are the rule, at least where Romney and Bain are concerned. In doing so, he betrays his lack of familiarity with the very economy he claims to be trying to shepherd.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
440 comments Add your comment
jefflz
May 22nd, 2012
12:34 pm
The author is very confused about the role of venture capital in American economics. There is a huge difference between those VC’s who take risks funding start-ups in innovative businesses be it in high tech or in the biomedical industry, among others. They funded the creation of Silicon Valley and the biotech industry, two of this country’s most important economic engines. The Romney/Bain Vulture Capitalist model is based on a smash-and-grab strategy that sucks out all the assets of a faltering company, pays huge bonuses to the investors, defunds pension plans at the expense of the tax payer and basically takes no risk with their own money. This business model is exemplary of Romney’s cold corporatist empathy-devoid personality and illustrates why he is unfit to be the leader of this country. These attacks are valid and important sources of information about who Romney really is.
Jefferson
May 22nd, 2012
12:44 pm
He knows a more about politics than you or your heros, Newt and Mitt.
Obama/Biden 2012
May 22nd, 2012
12:47 pm
See here’s what most republicans refuse to acknowledge. The President and Democrats aren’t saying that venture capitalism is wrong. But what is wrong is Mitt Romney running around the country stating that his time at Bain Capital was spent creating jobs. When the FACT is his time at Bain Capital was spent creating millions of dollars of profit to benifit himself and the other investors. How many jobs did Mitt Romney create overseas?
Check out this ad about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. It seems like Newt, Perry and Palin were right about something.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/pro-obama-super-pac-uses-gingrich-perry-to
clyde
May 22nd, 2012
12:48 pm
There are many aspects about Bain Capital that will be bandied about this summer.In the end the average voter will not know if Romney is a vulture or a dove.Nor will they care.
All I need to know about Romney is that he isn’t Obama.
Randy
May 22nd, 2012
12:50 pm
I am currently reading Steve Jobs’ biography and was struck by these comments that maximizing profits is the only element of a successful business. Throughout his career, Jobs made decisions that were driven by a desire (obsession) to produce amazing products. At times, this meant doing things that were more expensive or time-intensive than alternative approaches might have been – thus reducing the potential margin of the product itself. However, he understood that the creation of a unique brand was, in the long run, more important than churning out cheap, poorly-designed, poorly-manufactured devices like several of his competitors. The result, in the end, has been the creation of one of the most valuable companies in the world – despite the fact that profitability was not the primary driving force behind many of his decisions as CEO.
Joe Mama
May 22nd, 2012
12:52 pm
Kyle — “If a company is not trying to “maximize profits,” it is not a) trying to satisfy the most customers and thereby earn their business”
So when BofA, Wells Fargo or some other bank engages in robosigning and misrepresenting the resulting documents to a judge, they’re just trying to “satisfy the most customers?” Come now, Kyle.
MarkV
May 22nd, 2012
12:52 pm
Kyle either quite deliberately distorts Obama’s comments, or simply fails to understand them. Not only there was no “grudging acknowledgment” that profits can co-exist with a healthy economy, it was a clear acknowledgement that they can. But if Kyle disagrees that maximization of profits is only a part of the role of many business people, then we are fortunate that Kyle is a journalist and not a business man. We do not need more businessmen who care nothing about the society in which they live, how their decision will affect them and the employees of their companies. Profits are indispensable to a healthy economy, but they are not the only thing that matters.
Denver
May 22nd, 2012
12:56 pm
jefflz is the one not getting it. The creation of big, sustainable businesses like high tech and biomedial businesses is important. Breaking down and selling off the old stuff that doesn’t work any more is an equally important function. It may not be sexy or as comfortable to the outside observer, but what Mitt did at Bain was helping people hold estate sales….selling off the assets that became non-performing. Sure, the auctioneer at an estate sale has to earn a living, and personally I don’t begrudge Bain’s existence or their profits. It is naive and short-sighted to bemoan the jobs lost when a company is sold, downsized or dismantled. Our economy will continue to work best when every asset, person and piece of land is placed in its highest and best use. Arms length transactions between buyer and seller help that to happen, and it’s time to stop whipping the people who put those deals together.
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
12:58 pm
Obama is a fool and doesn’t know one thing about business. Obama is a communist and doesn’t believe in Capitalism or America. Vote this New Black Panther supporter out of office.
commoncents
May 22nd, 2012
1:00 pm
Randy @ 12:50
Steve Jobs also didn’t try to create all these wonderful things while thinking that they’ll be worthless and not innovative. (Innovation creates massive revenues)
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
1:05 pm
Once again the kenyan confirms his stupidity.
MSmith
May 22nd, 2012
1:10 pm
jefflz – Would you describe Obama’s good buddy Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway as Vulture Capitalists? Or is Buffett’s “cold corporatist empathy-devoid personality ” ok with you since he is on your side? It is amazing that the current President who spent all of 6 months of his career in the private sector will lecture us about profits and how business should be run. It is even more amazing that someone with such little experience doing anything other than agitate was elected in the first place.
Cutty
May 22nd, 2012
1:10 pm
Kyle, like most conservative journalists, never gives a reason why one should vote FOR Romney. Only reasons why one SHOULDN’T vote for Obama. But what does he understand, he voted for Newt.
It’s also interesting that he allows the coded racial overtones on his blog.
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
1:11 pm
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
1:09 pm
Obama’s supporters.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ahmadinejad-farrakhan-new-black-panthers-shocking-new-details-on-their-meeting-the-beast-alliance-that-was-forged/
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
1:12 pm
Just a sampling of The Liberal fighting song…Big Brother by David Bowie.
“Please savior, savior, show us
Hear me, I’m graphically yours
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you
We want you Big Brother, Big Brother”
Substitute Obama for Big Brother…works perfectly.
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
1:15 pm
Cutty. Like you . Why would you support Obama and what has Obama did that he deserves a second term? And as for Obama being labelled a radical or a racist, just look at his actions, policies, appointees, history, friends, supporters, the lying mainstreet media covering up for him and giving him a free pass. Need more???
Illegal Alien
May 22nd, 2012
1:16 pm
Which Presidents have been businessmen and how successful were they as President?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 22nd, 2012
1:23 pm
dummycrats slobber and drool over increasing an already confiscatory 35% tax rate and they say who is sucking the life out of American business? Would somebody please pass obozo a mirror?
Oh wait, he’ll only fawn over hisself with it. Nevermind.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
1:30 pm
“The Romney/Bain Vulture Capitalist model is based on a smash-and-grab strategy that sucks out all the assets of a faltering company,”
Like keeping GST (the first company cited in an Obama video) open and operating for 8 years longer than it should have been (according to the VP who actually knew their financial state), jefflz?
THAT kind of “smash and grab” mentality?
Oh, and closing it TWO YEARS AFTER Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, jefflz?
saywhat?
May 22nd, 2012
1:35 pm
“2012 Everyday: Kyle wants his column to be about a topic he doesn’t understand”
Fixed it for you
And Romney Wants The Election To Be About What He Doesn't Understand (99% Of The PEOPLE)
May 22nd, 2012
1:35 pm
The objective of PRIVATE EQUITY is to increase the value of a company for a fast sale.
PRIVATE EQUITY sheds assets and destroys jobs.
THIS AIN’T ROCKET SCIENCE
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
1:35 pm
Then there is Obamas fine example of what he considers the stalwart of companies, a model to be revered…Solyndra.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
1:41 pm
What the current Liar-in-Chief and the liberals on this blog don’t understand is that you don’t get to “maximize profits” by closing businesses and selling off assets.
You get them by streamlining their operations and keeping them open, which is what Bain Capital does at a 70% rate of success. And when you keep them open you (at the very least) save the existing jobs of people working at that company, if not hire more people to work.
Again, something Bain Capital does at a 70% success rate.
And yes, when your calculated gamble using your own money doesn’t work, your best bet is to close the business and sell off the assets; something every businessman or woman would do to maximize their return on investment.
It is not surprising that the current Liar-in-Chief and most libs don’t get how a capitalist market works, since they spend so much time trying to destroy it.
saywhat?
May 22nd, 2012
1:48 pm
tib- “It is not surprising that the current Liar-in-Chief and most libs don’t get how a capitalist market works, since they spend so much time trying to destroy it”
____________________________________________________
I guess that explains how the former Incompetent-in-chief and his fellow cons, with their knowledge of how the capitaist market works, were able to destroy it so much more effectively, and had to spend so little time to do so.
Citizen of the World
May 22nd, 2012
1:50 pm
The problem with Romney and the private equity groups like Bain is they want to “maximize profits” and expect the rest of us to be happy if we can “eke out a living.”
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
1:58 pm
“I guess that explains how the former Incompetent-in-chief and his fellow cons, with their knowledge of how the capitaist market works, were able to destroy it so much more effectively, and had to spend so little time to do so.”
Deflection, saywhat.
And incorrect, btw.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
1:58 pm
Hate to tell you this…but the President won the election yesterday….WE UNDERSTAND JUST FINE….Private equity has created some jobs…but it has shipped a ton of jobs overseas….
But what has been lost, is AMERICAN PRIDE….People who work at private equity are there to collect a check, because their job may be gone tomorrow…….They show up, do their job, go home, and collect a check on Friday……They don’t care about their private equity employer….because their private equity employer does not care about them…..
Didn’t used to be that way….used to be employees LOVED being a part of a good company….because their employers made them feel that way…..NOT ANY MORE…..
I hate to say this, because I am more of a Republican than a Democrat…but it started with Reagan….
The Republican party…..outsourcing AMERICAN PRIDE since 1980…..!!!!!
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:01 pm
Why would anyone have a since of pride in what their doing when they get paid peanuts and their private equity owners rake it in……!?!? It’s not fair…..the system is no longer fair……
WHAT IS THE POINT IN EVEN TRYING WHEN THE SYSTEM IS SO CORRUPT…!??!! We’re better off sitting it out, collecting off the government, and drinking coffee……that’s better than making some creepy Mormon millionare a few bucks for nothing…….when he’s just going to ship your job to China or Mexico anyway……
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
2:02 pm
“but the President won the election yesterday”
Strange, but I don’t remember voting yesterday. Nor do I know anybody that did.
And you are no more of a Republican than David Axelrod is, redneckbluedog.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:03 pm
and the problem with Romney is….He doesn’t have the charisma nor the Christian background to make people believe again………..he would be a failure……plus, as a polytheist, he has no moral authority to speak about homosexuality, abortion, NOTHING……
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:05 pm
And you are no more of a Republican than David Axelrod is, redneckbluedog
————————————
YESSIRREEE…….but I”m a working man…..I ain’t no Senator’s son…….and I don’t “invest in private equity”….!!!!! I know what a good job is, and I know what it means to work at a good place….
I also know what small business is….because I manage one……and one day I might sell to private equity….but for now, I care about my people and we all have skin in the game…..
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:06 pm
I take pride in my business and pride in my employees…….
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:06 pm
Oh yes…Obama and his “Green Economy” will save the day.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
2:07 pm
“creepy Mormon millionaire . . .”
Thanks for bringing in your religious bigotry, redneckbluedog.
And if you’re looking for someone else to instill some pride in your work, I wouldn’t want to hire you.
Pride is within you, or not at all.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:08 pm
AMERICAN PRIDE……American products and American workers……THIS FLAG AIN’T NO RAG, AND WE DON’T WEAR THEM ON OUR HEADS……!!!!!
We don’t ship our jobs overseas to make some panty-waist millionares rich….!!!!!
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:09 pm
Especially some panty-waist millionares who don’t believe in Jesus…..!!!!
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:10 pm
Pride is within you, or not at all.
——————————————–
Pride is within all Americans….until it gets beat out by an unfair system….with no hope of equality…..
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
2:11 pm
Gotta go “spread the wealth”…..I want my employees to BELIEVE in my company…!!!!!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
2:12 pm
“I ain’t no Senator’s son”
Facts might help you in trying to debate the merits of Mitt Romney and his record, redneckbluedog.
Please try actual research and see where your above statement is incorrect.
Then try researching Bain Capital (I suggest you don’t do your research on the Obama/Biden or DNC websites) for the REAL story of Mitt Romney’s record of success.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:13 pm
Unfair system? Govt grants, giveaways, Corp scholarships, job programs, job fairs. The system has never been more fair. The issue is those who refuse to work and think they should be paid $75K for their excellent CSR skills.
“Im sorry for the invconvience suh”
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:19 pm
Finn is missing. He must be working a shift managing the french fries.
Citizen of the World
May 22nd, 2012
2:27 pm
When I took economics in college, the teacher talked about pure profit as if it were somewhat rare. If you made more than it took you to pay your employees (including yourself) and make/sell your product or service, you were the exception rather than the rule. Sophisticated technology and globalization came along and changed the game, exponentially increasing productivity and profitability. But instead of putting this money back into the economy in the form of higher wages and bigger dividends, the “greed is good” crowd decided they would loan it to us instead, making even more money and creating the illusion through easy credit that the American Dream was alive and well. But we’ve had our rude awakening, now that people work at increasingly low paying jobs and great wealth is amassed in fewer and fewer hands — hands that are out for more and more as if they were beggars on the street.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:37 pm
Kindve like a “Beggars Banquet” of sorts?
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
2:40 pm
@Kyle…being your usual disingenuous self I see. Let’s take a look at what the President said next shall we.
“And the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be President is his business expertise. He is not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He is saying, I’m a business guy and I know how to fix it, and this is his business.
And when you’re President, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. Your job is to think about those workers who got laid off and how are we paying for their retraining. Your job is to think about how those communities can start creating new clusters so that they can attract new businesses. Your job as President is to think about how do we set up a equitable tax system so that everybody is paying their fair share that allows us then to invest in science and technology and infrastructure, all of which are going to help us grow.
And so, if your main argument for how to grow the economy is I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you’re missing what this job is about. It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity, but that’s not what my job is as President. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some. My job is to make sure that the country is growing not just now, but 10 years from now and 20 years from now.”
Now what part of that do you think shows a lack of comfort with the subject or a lack of respect for profits?
Now for this bit…”Instead, Obama says “maximize profits” as if it’s one element among many when it comes to business (it’s just “part of the role of a lot of business people,” with the others ostensibly at liberty to ignore revenues and expenses), as if he grudgingly acknowledges some possibility that profits can co-exist with a healthy economy.”
I gather they don’t teach strategic planning in Journalism School. There is a very specific time in the lifecycle of a company when strategically it is the goal to maximize profits. Other times in the lifecycle you have radically different goals. To intimate, as you do, that profit maximization should always be the goal of a business is shortsighted, wrong and not at all the way its done.
A couple of very well known models that address this issue are the GE–McKinsey nine-box framework, following on the heels of the Boston Consulting Group’s growth share matrix.
Now you might note that Bain is absent from this list. That’s because they don’t focus on strategically growing companies their entire reason for existing is stated on their website…
“Our mission at Bain Capital is to produce superior investment returns for our investors. ”
Nothing the matter with that, but as the President correctly points out the job of President is much more strategic than that and the skills involved in producing superior investment returns are not the same ones you need to be successful.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:44 pm
“Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”
Everyone has a fair shot. For those who refuse to take advantage of the opportunities presented, who are many, then tough noggies. Let them eat from the refuse bin and live under the bridge.
Dusty
May 22nd, 2012
2:48 pm
What ? Run a business without profit? That, to me. is like serving a meal without food. Lotsa plates, glasses and knives and forks but NO FOOD!
You can luv your employess, care about the poor consumer and send Valentines to your mother but your company will not keep running without profit.
I wish someoen had told President Obama all this before he went off looking like a failure in a class on economics. He could have run a lemonade stand and learned something.. You think they might let him run one at the White House? It’s not too late..
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
2:53 pm
The kenyan is kinda like Ted “The Drunkard” Kennedy. I know best so do as I say and NOT as I do because Im above the law. Sorry that you are not.
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
May 22nd, 2012
2:56 pm
It’s also interesting that he allows the coded racial overtones on his blog.
I also find that interesting.
We are in the South as you know. This sort of thing is the norm around here.
50 years isn’t that long ago and 50 years ago Obama couldn’t have even used a public bathroom in the south.
Some things are slow to change.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
2:57 pm
What I heard Oblamer say yesterday that struck me the most, was his assertion that he is better qualified than Romney to handle the economy over the next four years. Blatantly untrue by any standard, but he justified this by reaffirming his belief in government control of the economy. He implied that only he could make sure that every American got a “fair shake”, where as Romney just wanted to get the economy roaring again, which he implied might only work for some.
I think he meant that a Romney economy might result in the prepared, hard working, and risk takers being better off, but the unprepared, ill equipped would once again be left at the curb. He seems to base his qualifications as an economic leader on his effort to bring economic benefits to all.
So, he seemed to say to me that he wanted an economy that worked for all, or worked for none of us. The only way to achieve an economy that works for everyone would be a government controlled economy, heavily regulated, heavily taxed, slow to recover, but included a great deal of wealth re-distribution to help the ner do wells.
I think he will continue to play this, his economy that works for all, versus Romney’s economy that works for the “haves”. His appeal is to the “have nots” to vote for him and get even. We all know if elected, he will ditch this and try to get revenues back as close to normal as possible so he can start spending again, and it will be tough luck for the “have nots”. The old,” well I tried, but Bush got us in this mess and the GOP house and Senate just won’t go along, so I gotta do what I gotta do.”
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
2:59 pm
“Nothing the matter with that, but as the President correctly points out the job of President is much more strategic than that and the skills involved in producing superior investment returns are not the same ones you need to be successful.”
You mean like how Obama can “invest” in green companies that go under completely without any return to the investors, JDW?
Or investing in companies like GM who pay back their loans with other government funds? Or screw the ACTUAL investors out of THEIR investments, JDW?
Of course the goal of Bain Capital is to produce superior returns on investment. And they do that by KEEPING companies viable and strong with people employed at a success rate of 70%.
Steve Rattner on Morning Joe this morning told of how the private equity firms are telling the Obama campaign to shut up and get off this strategy. Their campaign contributions are about to dry up and shift to Romney. Cory Booker went off the plantation this Sunday but was dragged back in line with some harsh comments by the Obama/Biden machine following his Meet the Press appearance. He’s toast in the short term, if not the long term in national Democrat politics.
This latest strategy will only work on solidifying the Liar-in-Chief’s base, which has nowhere to go anyway.
Halftrack
May 22nd, 2012
3:06 pm
Profits & Loss are not the Presidents main function. Certainly equality under the law for opportunity should be for all. Failure or success is up to the individual. A rising economy, like a rising tide, lifts all boats or individuals. This is the main function of the President as well as our security as a Nation.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
3:11 pm
And what does it say about the desperation of the Obama campaign that they release two Bain Capital attacks against Romney, and Romney had nothing to do with either company closing it’s doors?
This isn’t “exaggeration”, or even “misrepresentation”. This is LYING, plain and simple.
What does it say about the Obama campaign and the candidate himself when he has to lie to try to keep his office?
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
3:12 pm
Tiberius we agree. An economy depending on have nots, will nots, did nots, and care nots does not work. BUT, it rallies his base, the Have Nots and the Utopians.
Del
May 22nd, 2012
3:16 pm
Obama is on dangerous ground believing that a strong offense against Romey’s Bain career will translate into a defense of his less than stellar economic accomplishments. During the course of this campaign he will be forced to discuss and defend his record. This diversionary tactic focusing Romney and Bain hasn’t gained him very much in the polls.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:19 pm
And after yesterday….I would be VERY careful questioning the President’s intelligence about ANYTHING…..he looked pretty up to date on a lot of stuff…..
Not dealing with George Bush here, or Nathan Deal….
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:20 pm
Tiberius we agree. An economy depending on have nots, will nots, did nots, and care nots does not work. BUT, it rallies his base, the Have Nots and the Utopians.
————————————————————
Sounds like North Korea to me…..
Dusty
May 22nd, 2012
3:21 pm
Cheesy Grits, 2:56
“We are in the south you know. This sort of thing is the norm around here.” (”racial overtones”)
Is that right? I suppose you live in Atlanta, crown city of the South, and haven’t noticed that this city has a majority of black citizens in charge and “black” universities and thriving black business and a mecca for black refugees such as those who came here after New Orleans was decimated.
I guess a majority of folks have not heard about the ” coded racial overtones”. Maybe you have found that for which you look.
The South is one of the finest places in America for all to live and thrive. If you don’t think so, why are you here?
Keep beating the drum. Blame everything on “race” when you live in the most free country in the world. If you can’t see beyond that, please don’t advertise your own shortcomings.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:22 pm
Tiberius we agree. An economy depending on have nots, will nots, did nots, and care nots does not work. BUT, it rallies his base, the Have Nots and the Utopians.
———————————————————–
Are you suggesting that America be a Plutocracy…!?!? or a Fascist Oligarch….!??!!? BECAUSE THE HAVE NOTS ARE WHAT BUILT THIS COUNTRY…!!!!
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
3:23 pm
“…And after yesterday….I would be VERY careful questioning the President’s intelligence about ANYTHING…”
Kinda reminds me of the Bush/Goron interviews when Gore couldnt answer questions, kept abusing the time allotments and just generally behaved like a clown.
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:24 pm
America works best when EVERYBODY participates……Does that sound like a Democratic sound bite to you……or an AMERICAN sound bite….!?!?!?
Cutty
May 22nd, 2012
3:25 pm
Yeah Dusty, those ‘black universities’ were founded when those ‘blacks’ weren’t allowed to attend those white colleges. People went there, then their kids went there and so on. Sort of like those legacies at UGA.
And George Bush, the man republicans love to forget, was a businessman. How did that turn out?
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:26 pm
You folks should listen at yourselves…..You want Romney and Koch and Ryan to win so badly you’re becoming STRANGE….!!! Un-American….!!!! S-P-O-O-K-Y……!!!!
redneckbluedog
May 22nd, 2012
3:27 pm
Take that crap to Salt Lake City….because in America we believe in Americans…!!!!
AMERICAN PRIDE 2012…..Obama/Biden…!!!!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
3:27 pm
“America works best when EVERYBODY participates”
They do. Conservatives participate in creating jobs and wealth, and liberals participate in sucking conservatives dry.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
3:29 pm
“America works best when EVERYBODY participates”
Agreed. But many dont want to particpate. Many dont want to work. Other than working/scamming for as many govt benefits as possible, many will not participate.
Your logic, while well-meaning, is somewhat naive’.
Cutty
May 22nd, 2012
3:31 pm
TThats funny Tiberius, because when you look at the actual facts conservatives are the takers and those pesky liberals on the coasts are the wealthy. MS, AL, AR, AL, LA, KS, TN, KY. Yeah they’d be so wealthy if those liberals in NY, MA, and CT weren’t taking their money.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
3:31 pm
@Tiberius…your examples in and of themselves are perfect illustrations of the differences and why Romney, Kyle and you are viewing this through a shortsighted lens.
Lets take this one first
“You mean like how Obama can “invest” in green companies that go under completely without any return to the investors, JDW?”
SO? Is it your view that companies should not take a risk on new technologies? That’s what it is, a risk. You wish to castigate the President for a company gone bad that got some investment from the government while at the same time giving Bain a pass for a 30% failure rate. In true VC environment that failure rate should exceed 50%. If it doesn’t you aren’t taking enough risk.
And of course you do realize that the technology from those failed companies lives on. To be reused or discarded as the case may be, both valuable results. You don’t think so. Check out Voice over IP adoption rates…nice business right? How many VOIP companies went bust along that road?
Now for this gem…
“Or investing in companies like GM who pay back their loans with other government funds? Or screw the ACTUAL investors out of THEIR investments, JDW?”
GM is one of the biggest success stories of all time. Last year they made a $7.6 billion dollar profit, most people still have their jobs and NO ONE GOT SCREWED. In fact, when compared with liquidation, bondholders got more than they would have and common stockholders got exactly what they would have.
Your attitude is a perfect example of the skills that are lacking in Romney. You and he, ostensibly, would have simply let GM fail. Roasted everyone investors, bond holders, customers, employees and suppliers. All in the name of what?
Dusty
May 22nd, 2012
3:35 pm
redneckbluedog 3:19
There you go with the usual riffraff.
As far as I can see, Obama makes us wish for Bush and Nathan Deal is running a “tight ship” for Georgia.
You want to mention the many trillion national debt increased under President Obama or shall I do it for you? Or…are you one of those that the ” President works for inspiration, not the perspiration of work”?
Kyle Wingfield
May 22nd, 2012
3:35 pm
Yes, JDW. I’m sure the president was only being critical of those companies that try to maximize profits during the wrong part of their lifecycle…
And while I didn’t quote the part of his remarks where he outlined the president’s job vis-a-vis the economy, I did refer to it and comment on it. If you want to argue that he showed a better grasp of how the economy works with his assertion that the president’s job includes helping individual communities develop new economic clusters, be my guest.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
3:36 pm
Cutty
May 22nd, 2012
3:31 pm
You seem to have forgotten California….
Thomas Heyward Jr
May 22nd, 2012
3:37 pm
Only a Romney/Obama supporting maron would pay attention to a campaign or rhetoric spewed forth from serial politicians.
.
Both men have a record of stealing wealth.
Romney……….using a corrupt and complacent SEC and various government porn-surfing “regulators.
And Obama………using the government in a more direct way.
.
Neither parasites ever “created” some much as a dollar of real wealth.
They only stole it.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
3:40 pm
GM is a very poor example of a profitable company, yet a prime example of how not to conduct business. The numbers they post are a sham. You’ve been a victim of the “ole shell game.”
If thats the best you have then restocking your quiver would be wise.
Well maybe I speak too quickly. With the roll-out of the Chevy Volt and, as the commercials state, visiting the petrol station monthly could be our saving grace.
iggy
May 22nd, 2012
3:44 pm
And on another note…fb continues its descent into the toilet. New alltime low just achieved at $30.94.
Dusty
May 22nd, 2012
3:49 pm
I don’t think the government should be involved in the running of “business”. I mean I don’t want to buy a car from the government, buy roofing, windows, windmills & energy from the government or gasoline from government oilwells, or fly in government airplanes.
Our constituion is not a business plan.. It is for citizen’s rights, justice and defense and nothing more. Maybe Congress could do more if it could attend to basic government duties. .
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
3:52 pm
jefflz: The Romney/Bain Vulture Capitalist model is based on a smash-and-grab strategy that sucks out all the assets of a faltering company, pays huge bonuses to the investors, defunds pension plans at the expense of the tax payer and basically takes no risk with their own money.
——————
You could have just said “I know nothing”.
It would have saved you and us so much time.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
4:01 pm
GM is one of the biggest success stories of all time. Last year they made a $7.6 billion dollar profit, most people still have their jobs and NO ONE GOT SCREWED.
——————–
The thousands of folks who used to work in GM’s now-closed dealerships and their former bondholders might take issue with the above.
Why didn’t GM pay their “fair share” in taxes on that “profit”?
Enough to make grown liberal democrats cry!
May 22nd, 2012
4:03 pm
Among the list of nominees for Georgia Supreme Court Justice… envelope if you please…. drum roll…Justice Neal Boortz!
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
4:37 pm
GM not only didn’t pay their “fair share” in income taxes on their 2011 “profit”, the IRS stroked them a check for $110 million.
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2012/Q4_2011_Financial_Highlights.pdf
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
4:38 pm
“SO? Is it your view that companies should not take a risk on new technologies? That’s what it is, a risk.”
Not at all, and you don’t get to speak for me, either, JDW. The difference between a conservative and a liberal is that conservatives believe that companies should take thoughtful risks with PRIVATE capital, not wealth taken by force through government taxation or unfunded debt.
“You wish to castigate the President for a company gone bad that got some investment from the government while at the same time giving Bain a pass for a 30% failure rate. In true VC environment that failure rate should exceed 50%. If it doesn’t you aren’t taking enough risk.”
So now you’re agreeing with me that Bain Capital under Romney’s leadership did much better than typical venture capital firms? Good for you for finally seeing the light, JDW.
“And of course you do realize that the technology from those failed companies lives on.”
Really? With who? Solyndra produced nothing of value nor any leading technology
“GM is one of the biggest success stories of all time. Last year they made a $7.6 billion dollar profit, most people still have their jobs and NO ONE GOT SCREWED.”
Guess you missed the part where the original bondholders were eliminated from the mix when the government took over and the unions took their place. maybe if you were one of the original bondholders you might feel different about the whole “no one got screwed” meme, JDW.
“In fact, when compared with liquidation, bondholders got more than they would have and common stockholders got exactly what they would have.”
Bondholders got NOTHING, JDW.
“You and he, ostensibly, would have simply let GM fail.”
You obviously don’t know what a managed bankruptcy means, do you, JDW? Many companies undergoing reorganization through bankruptcy do not fail. In fact, many come back stronger than ever.
And they do so without taxpayers dollars being spent and never repaid.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
How many “success stories” is this now for Chrysler?
JKL2
May 22nd, 2012
4:45 pm
redneckbluedog- AMERICAN PRIDE 2012…..Obama/Biden…!!!!
ROFLMFAO!!! How can you put “American pride” and obama in the same sentence? Never heard of a man embarrassed to be American having pride in it too.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
4:54 pm
2012 Tuesday: Ob[ozo] wants the election to be about a topic he doesn’t understand
—————————
Some things Obozo doesn’t understand:
- Patriotism
- Free market capitalism
- Men’s jeans
- Personal responsibility
- The number of states in the Union
- The proper way of throwing a baseball
- Work
- Honesty
md
May 22nd, 2012
4:55 pm
It’s past the point of comical…….Obama is opening a can of worms he should have left alone. He wants to bash Romney for having to slash some jobs in trying to save businesses, yet conveniently fails to remember that GM shuttered hundreds of dealerships and laid off thousands of employees, not to mention the Solyndra top brass running off with our tax money.
He also seems not to remember that one of his top bundlers, Jonathan Lavine, is/was a managing director at Bain Capital. Lavine, who has raised over $100,000 for the president, was at the firm when GST Steel declared bankruptcy.
My other beef with posters here is in regards to the “vulture” investors that take part in these ventures. You folks would be wise to do a little research as you yourself may be in on it. Unions, Universities, Pension funds, etc etc…….ALL investors.
And guess what folks…..WE WANT THEM TO DO WELL and make LOTS of profits.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
4:59 pm
I wonder what happens to failing companies that private equity firms DON’T buy.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:02 pm
@Kyle…”I’m sure the president was only being critical of those companies that try to maximize profits during the wrong part of their lifecycle”
I don’t think he was critical of companies. Making a statement on Mittens yes…critcal of profits no.
And yes, I do think he has and showed a better grasp of the issue than you or Mittens.
Jefferson
May 22nd, 2012
5:08 pm
Bain will be a liability. Mean spirited, cares about money more than people. Greedy, seeking personal gain on the backs of others. Did I mention greedy ?
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:08 pm
@Tiberious…”So now you’re agreeing with me that Bain Capital under Romney’s leadership did much better than typical venture capital firms? ”
I never said they did poorly, however I would not call them a venture capital firm. They are a private equity firm. Big difference.
Check your facts on this one…”Bondholders got NOTHING, JDW.”
“Investors holding bonds in the old General Motors Corp. will receive stock and warrants for shares in the new General Motors Co. (GM) on April 21, an action that analysts said may depress the stock price.
Old GM, now known as Motors Liquidation Co. (MTLQQ), will give bondholders 150 million shares in GM and warrants to buy 272.8 million more shares. A trust holding the shares will distribute them directly to bondholders’ brokerage accounts on or after April 21, according to a memo distributed Wilmington Trust Inc., a money-management firm hired by the creditors’ committee.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-06/old-gm-bondholders-getting-shares-in-new-general-motors-may-depress-price.html
No one got screwed, in fact virtually everyone came out better than they would have under a traditional bankrupcy…it would have been a forced liquidation fire sale.
biggie whoops
May 22nd, 2012
5:18 pm
Personally, I’d prefer bain to go away. It wasn’t about creating or destroying jobs. It was all about the benjamins. Romney’s a money pimp.Big whoop!
md
May 22nd, 2012
5:19 pm
“I wonder what happens to failing companies that private equity firms DON’T buy.”
That’s the part some on the left seem not to understand…….it’s much better to lay off 10% of employees vs 100% of employees……but they can’t see the big picture as they are squinting too hard looking at the little picture.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:20 pm
@LBB…”Not taxpayers. We’re still owed tens of billions by GM alone.”
GM still owes the government some $20 odd billion which will be repaid. That makes the debt an asset not a cost. On the interest side of the ledger we have had the opportunity to collect taxes from GM employees, suppliers, and sales. My guess is that if you calculated the ROI it would be usury.
That makes it an incredibly profitable investment for the taxpayer. Unlike missile defense, invading Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy. Just to name a few Republican boondoggles.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
5:20 pm
““Investors holding bonds in the old General Motors Corp. will receive stock and warrants for shares in the new General Motors Co. (GM) on April 21, an action that analysts said may depress the stock price. ”
Oh, so bondholders get something that will likely be reduced in price.
Great way to protect their original investment, JDW!
And again, you don’t understand bankruptcy laws one little bit.
biggie whoops
May 22nd, 2012
5:21 pm
Kyle,
What’s a scumbag obozo?
md
May 22nd, 2012
5:21 pm
“Mean spirited, cares about money more than people. Greedy, seeking personal gain on the backs of others. Did I mention greedy ?”
You really shouldn’t talk about teachers unions like that……they just want their piece of the pie too…..
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
5:24 pm
GM still owes the government some $20 odd billion which will be repaid.
—————
When is that payment scheduled?
Didn’t think so.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
5:25 pm
On the interest side of the ledger we have had the opportunity to collect taxes from GM employees, suppliers, and sales.
———————————-
You’re assuming those folks would have just gone home and sat around waiting for someone to provide for them.
Be real. They’re not ALL Democrats.
Jefferson
May 22nd, 2012
5:26 pm
They aren’t going to be drilled on your so called greed as they are not running for president.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:27 pm
@Tiberius…”And again, you don’t understand bankruptcy laws one little bit.”
Want to elaborate or are you just comfortable tossing out unfounding sweeping statements as usual?
Jefferson
May 22nd, 2012
5:27 pm
Romney, the cat with an image problem.
Kyle Wingfield
May 22nd, 2012
5:28 pm
Lil’ Barry: As indicated in the rules, I put up with a lot of name-calling toward public officials, but “Scumbag Obozo” and “Idiot Klown Obozo” are well and truly beyond the pale.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:29 pm
@Kyle..thank god!
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:30 pm
@LBB…”You’re assuming those folks would have just gone home and sat around waiting for someone to provide for them.”
And which local auto factory do you think they would have gone to?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
5:32 pm
“Want to elaborate or are you just comfortable tossing out unfounding sweeping statements as usual?”
Already did. Guess you missed it.
Like so many other things you post about.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
5:33 pm
JDW: And which local auto factory do you think they would have gone to?
——————-
Wow, you DO think they’re all Democrats. Let’s hope the folks Obozo has condemned to long-term unemployment have more imagination than you.
md
May 22nd, 2012
5:33 pm
Trouble in the ranks:
“The Coalition of African American Pastors announced Tuesday that it does not agree with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s decision to endorse the legalization of same-sex marriage.”
Have to say the man knows how to divide a nation……
md
May 22nd, 2012
5:38 pm
“The NAACP has abandoned its historic responsibility to speak for and safeguard the civil rights movement,” CAAP founder and President William Owens said Tuesday. “We who marched with Rev. King did not march one inch or one mile to promote same-sex marriage.”
Will they vote or sit this one out?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
5:40 pm
One of the problems the auto industry had before the GM/Chrysler bankruptcy/looting is overcapacity.
Thanks to Obozo, that problem has merely been deferred, not fixed.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:42 pm
@Tiberius…”You obviously don’t know what a managed bankruptcy means, do you, JDW? Many companies undergoing reorganization through bankruptcy do not fail. In fact, many come back stronger than ever.”
I suppose in your alternate universe this is elaboration.
You obviously don’t understand most do not and in this case the alternative was liquidation.
BTW..on two occasions I have been involved with companies in distress. I know quite a lot about the process.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
5:44 pm
on two occasions I have been involved with companies in distress. I know quite a lot about the process.
———–
THAT I believe.
AmVet
May 22nd, 2012
5:44 pm
Five words that I would never vote for the socialist:
Corporations are people, my friend.
Prepare for second consecutive McCaining…
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
5:47 pm
“You obviously don’t understand most do not and in this case the alternative was liquidation.”
Two letters describe your assessment: “B” and “S”.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
5:48 pm
“Prepare for second consecutive McCaining…”
So writes the tool whose prediction rate is closer to zero than it is to 50%.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
5:48 pm
@LBB…”THAT I believe.”
Some of us do get out of our basement…
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
5:54 pm
“So writes the tool whose prediction rate is closer to zero than it is to 50%.”
Speaking of bad predictions, when is that double dip recession going to start? The $5 a gallon gas?
AmVet
May 22nd, 2012
5:55 pm
Hey, whadya know? The serially banned one pukes up an unprovoked insult!
Man! That is out of character, huh?
It must be truly terrible to be that tormented. By a complete stranger, no less.
Enjoy your animus though, Dave. It works for you…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
6:00 pm
JDW: Some of us do get out of our basement…
——————
Those two companies you wrecked probably wish you hadn’t.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
6:03 pm
Well for the second part, DannyX, I have never predicted $5 gas. Others maybe, but not me.
As for the double-dip recession, it’s coming. The slowdown in retail which I did predict has already begun. Europe’s economy is not going to get fixed, and Spain, Greece and France are going to slide even further, with economists now saying there is a better than 50% chance that Greece will no longer be under the Euro (according the Steven Rattner this morning). 83% of Americans polled think the economy is going to get worse according to the latest ABC poll. Consumer confidence is heading in the wrong direction, and all this President can do is attack the people who create jobs and complain that half the body led by his own party can’t get anything done. Debt ceiling Part Deux is coming, with no attempts to negotiate with Congressional leaders except to say “Do it my way”.
The double-dip recession is coming, DannyX, and even the possibility of a Romney Presidency will probably not stop it.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
6:04 pm
“Enjoy your irrational hatred of the GOP though, ScamVet. It certainly works for you…
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
6:05 pm
@LBB…among others things, they call me to undo the wrecking. It’s a bit like picking up after Duhbya.
md
May 22nd, 2012
6:06 pm
For those that seem confused as to whether the GM bonholders got screwed:
“Bondholders, who financed as much as $27 billion of General Motors’ operations, eventually received only 10% of the shares in the new, post-bankruptcy firm. The US government in tandem with the United Auto Workers would receive the remainder.”
In every other bankruptcy, the bondholders are first in line…….in Obama’s world, they were moved to the back. Folks should think twice if that kind of corruption doesn’t play on the minds of investors……which are the necessary evil in most ventures.
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
6:11 pm
May 22, 2012 PRINCETON, NJ — The Gallup Economic Confidence Index broke through a barrier last week, surpassing -17 for the first time in the four-plus years of Gallup Daily tracking in the United States. The index now stands at -16 for the week ending May 20, up from -18 in each of the prior two weeks in May, and from -21 in late April.
Consumer confidence is at a 4 year high Tiberius.
Can you be more specific on your “its coming” theory? You’ve been saying that for a while now. Btw, the housing market surged in April.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
6:12 pm
@Tiberius..BS?
More hyperbole form the source…let’s have an alternative. Who would have picked up the pieces? How could they have funded it? Remember no funding was available for anything. Even more importantly how would they have held the supply chain together? Remember they are a JIT bunch,
AmVet
May 22nd, 2012
6:12 pm
OK, Dave.
And when you can get to the point where you don’t have to make everything personal and comtemptuous, you won’t get canned half a dozen times from multiple forums.
But hey, ain’t no skin off of my nose.
I just show up once in awhile to make a post or two and to possibly engage with Kyle, and inevitably have to deal with your immature and childish insults for doing so.
No big whoop.
Toodles. Until the next time…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
6:16 pm
JDW: among others things, they call me to undo the wrecking. It’s a bit like picking up after Duhbya.
——————-
I hope you’re better at it than Obozo. Obozo “picked up after” Our President Bush by increasing unemployment, adding millions to the welfare rolls, driving up the deficit to over $1 trillion every year, blowing $800 billion on a failed stimulus, and wrecking our health care system.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
6:16 pm
Oblamer can’t have it both ways. He played venture capitalist with GM and he is critical of Romney?
He took a bloated, leveraged, and inefficient company, screwed the creditors, sought solace from the union employees, laid off thousands of other employees, and took the lively hood away from thousands of dealers. Many of the dealers chosen for elimination were dealers who had donated to the GOP or not supported him. He wound up with a downsized, more efficient company, as do the VC companies like Bain.
Every time he mentions Romney laying off people Romney should point out the 50,000+ Obama laid off in the US military. Many of them being tossed out of their chosen career and thrown into the abyss of the Obama economy back home.
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
6:22 pm
From the ABC poll Tiberius just referenced,
“Who do you think is more responsible for the country’s current economic problems—Barack Obama or George W. Bush?”
Bush: 49
Obama: 34
Lil berry, most people understand that George W Bush and the Republicans left behind such a train wreck that the repair job would take some time.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
6:22 pm
“Bondholders, who financed as much as $27 billion of General Motors’ operations, eventually received only 10% of the shares in the new, post-bankruptcy firm.
md
I think JDW and the other libs on here know that, they just don’t think it is relevant. To them the investors got what was coming to them, i.e. “their fair share”.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
6:24 pm
Bush: 49
Obama: 34
Danny X
As they say, never underestimated the lack of intelligence of the American people. The dumb masses believe what they have been told by the MSM.
md
May 22nd, 2012
6:28 pm
“I think JDW and the other libs on here know that, they just don’t think it is relevant. To them the investors got what was coming to them, i.e. “their fair share”.”
Which is why their idea of how business works will bring this country down….
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
6:35 pm
AmVet, What has Obama did for you, and how has his policies helped you and our Nation? In other words why would you waste your vote and vote/support Obama for a second term? What great policy has Obama created that has united and helped America to be a better Nation? And what do you think should be done with Eric Holder AG and his shameless corruption. Examples (F& F,and Black Panthers). These are real questions with no name calling so lets see how you respond.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
6:41 pm
@Rafe and MD…10 percent is a damn sight better than they would have done under any other senario so what’s your point…minus the crap.
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
6:43 pm
Kyle, I guest we will just call him the same thing President Obama called us.( Republicans are the “Enemy” and “Typical White Guy”). So President Obama will be called the Enemy or typical Black Guy. OK????????????
Kyle Wingfield
May 22nd, 2012
5:28 pm
Lil’ Barry: As indicated in the rules, I put up with a lot of name-calling toward public officials, but “Scumbag Obozo” and “Idiot Klown Obozo” are well and truly beyond the pale.
Link
Report this comment
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
6:44 pm
“The dumb masses believe what they have been told by the MSM.”
Pew Research- Was the GM/Chrysler bailouts good or bad for the economy?
Oct 2009
Good 37%
Bad 54%
Feb 2012
Good 56%
Bad 38%
Rafe, I suppose the first time Pew asked that question the public had not yet been brainwashed by the MSM.
TruthBe
May 22nd, 2012
6:53 pm
DannyX, Please Bro you’re not stupid, stop with the pro Obama stuff. Obama is a disgrace as the president and his communist administration is so corrupt. A vote for Obama is a vote for more of the same corruption, violence, racism, and radical policies. Even you can see this. It’s not a Black or White matter it’s a right or wrong issue. And Obama is plain and simple the wrong coarse for America.
td
May 22nd, 2012
6:57 pm
Who are some of these big investors in Bain that want a maximum return on their investment? CA teachers and Texas teachers retirement funds. Can you libs answer where these funds would be today if not for Bain and the money they paid out? How many teachers would be retiring with less money today if not for Bain? How many teachers would still have to be working or how much higher would taxes be in those states if it were not for Bain and other venture capital firms like them?
md
May 22nd, 2012
6:58 pm
“@Rafe and MD…10 percent is a damn sight better than they would have done under any other senario so what’s your point…minus the crap.”
100% incorrect……….
“Assuming bondholders held onto their shares to see GM post a record profit in 2011, their 10% share is worth only $4.2 billion at current valuation. The company had as much as $90 billion in assets that would have been distributed first to bondholders in 2008. There’s quite a difference between $90 billion in assets and $4.2 billion of equity market value in 2012.”
Even in a fire sale, they get their money back. Obama once again picked his winners and losers.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
7:01 pm
@Md…you overlook the small fact that without the bailout GM would have been liquidated in bankruptcy. Likely failing to cover secured debt and leaving nothing for bond holders.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
7:11 pm
Rafe, I suppose the first time Pew asked that question the public had not yet been brainwashed by the MSM.
Yep, you got it right Danny. When first asked they relied on their gut instinct that this stinks. Defrauding the investors, giving them millions of tax payer dollars that will never be repaid, giving the company to the union, laying off thousands, etc.
Then the big PR campaign began. Oblama gives Gov Motors more tax payer money so they can pay back some of the bailout. The MSM reports money repaid, never mentioned they did it with taxpayer funds. Oblama talks up the turn around and how now the company is on the right track. MSM follows in lock step. People fall for the lies, mainly lies of omission, like not telling the people how much GM still owes, how much the investors lost, how much power the union gained in running the company. MSM just broadcasting that GM has paid back the bailout, positive stuff only, blah, blah.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
7:13 pm
“Consumer confidence is at a 4 year high Tiberius.”
You look at ONE source, DannyX. I look at many. It’s typical of what you libs do when trying to explain complex concepts you don’t understand, like saying Bush was responsible for the recession, etc.
“Can you be more specific on your “its coming” theory?”
No, already have been.
“You’ve been saying that for a while now. Btw, the housing market surged in April.”
The housing market had no where to go but up, DannyX. It is also spring, when people typically begin moving / building. But what is being built is comparative crap when looked at with what was being built before. We have whole neighborhoods which began their lives as $350-$450k homes, and are now having $180-$250k homes being built – in the same uncompleted neighborhoods!
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
7:15 pm
@Md…you overlook the small fact that without the bailout GM would have been liquidated in bankruptcy.
Not true, KMart, Delta, and many other bankrupt companies reorganized under Bankruptcy laws and continued to exist, as would Gov Motors.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
7:18 pm
Hey, ScramVet, when you get to the point where you can make an intelligent point without automatically denigrating only one-half of the problem in this country, feel free to come back here.
It is impossible to “engage” with anyone when you have no cogent point to make.
You should try to open what little mind you have left to alternative possibilities and more importantly, the reality that is all around you if you wish to have a discussion. Otherwise, your other site is waiting for embrace you with open arms.
The rest of us here will continue to attempt to have intelligent discussion every now and again.
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
7:33 pm
“You look at ONE source, DannyX. I look at many”
You made this up Tiberius, “83% of Americans polled think the economy is going to get worse according to the latest ABC poll.” That’s not what the poll asked at all!
That poll asked ” Would you describe the state of the nation’s economy these days as excellent, good, not so good or poor?” 83% never said they thought the economy was going to get worse.
In fact that poll was an improvement from the previous poll they took 2 months earlier when it was 89% net negative, the peak was back in Jan 2009, 94% net negative.
You totally misrepresented that poll to fit your own hysterical bias.
Common Sense
May 22nd, 2012
7:40 pm
Thank God Romney and his magic underpants understand.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
7:40 pm
DannyX, what percentage of people described the economy as excellent or good?
That would be 17%, DannyX, leaving 83% thinking the economy ain’t so hot, son.
You can wordsmith it all day long, but people aren’t buying this President’s policies and don’t think we’re going to get better any time soon.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
7:42 pm
Thanks for adding your religious bigotry into the conversation about Bain Capital and the economy, Common No-sense.
AmVet
May 22nd, 2012
7:49 pm
when you…feel free to come back here.
Notwithstanding your made up status as someone with an iota of power, you get ZERO say in the matter.
What a shame, huh?
And by all means, come on over to that “other site”, occasionally.
(Oh that’s right, you can’t, because you have huge self-control issues…)
snoqualmiefalls
May 22nd, 2012
7:53 pm
Love when the question of religious bigotry comes up when discussing Mittens.. Funny Tibby, lets discuss the same quesion of bigotry concerning Rev. Wright and his religious views that FOX, Drudge, among other were/have been so obesessed.. go ahead open the door Tibby, then we can discuss the Mormon church and baptizing dead Jews.. Come on open that door Tibby.
md
May 22nd, 2012
8:01 pm
“@Md…you overlook the small fact that without the bailout GM would have been liquidated in bankruptcy. Likely failing to cover secured debt and leaving nothing for bond holders.”
It seems it is you doing the overlooking…..read my posts. GM had 90 billion in assets….the bondholders had 27 billion invested…….the wound up with 4. Not sure how you do math, but it should be pretty easy to get 27 billion out of 90 billion in assets.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:08 pm
snoqualmiefalls, you will NEVER see anything written by me regarding the religious beliefs of anyone, good or bad. What they choose to believe in is their own business and not mine, so long as they don’t try to force their beliefs on me or my family.
Got any other deflection, son?
Progressive Humanist
May 22nd, 2012
8:10 pm
Yeah, Kyle, the journalism major with a bachelor’s degree, knows more about the office of the presidency than President Obama.
Here’s what President Obama knows about:
How to kill Osama Bin Laden
How to bring our economy back from the verge of absolute collapse in 2008
How to save General Motors from disappearing and costing hundreds of thousands Americans their jobs
How to create 26 straight months of job growth
Here’s what what Romney would have done:
None of the above
Here’s what Kyle knows:
Jack
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:12 pm
ScramVet, I have no power to force you to do anything, nor do you have any power to keep me from hounding you and your nonsense when you come over here.
Again, if you wish to have a discussion, discuss. But if you wish to continue your stupid anti-GOP everything comments that are not based on any facts, be prepared to have them thoroughly and personally debunked.
And I wouldn’t go over there if you paid me. I value my IQ too much to have it permanently lowered by engaging with the typical liberal blogger over there.
Except for josef and Brosephus. They have minds that work.
Progressive Humanist
May 22nd, 2012
8:20 pm
Romney’s chances in the general are just north of nil. Only 2-3% separates the candidates nationally, but the electoral map is nearly insurmountable for him. In order to win 270 electoral votes he’ll need to take Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, plus either Colorado, Iowa, or New Hampshire. And Obama won ALL of those states last time and currently leads in almost all of them. Obama only needs to take one or two of those big states to hit 270, and Ohio and Virginia already look to be out of Romney’s reach. If you think this race is close, then you don’t understand how presidential elections work.
md
May 22nd, 2012
8:22 pm
“How to kill Osama Bin Laden”
Everybody including my granny knew how the kill the guy……finding him was the problem. And from what we think we know, Obama never would have found him without the spooks doing the dirty work. The dirty work that Obama would not have ordered by the way.
Sounds like a circle……..
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:25 pm
“If you think this race is close, then you don’t understand how presidential elections work.”
If you think that looking at states 6 months before a general election can predict the outcome of an election, you don’t understand how elections work, Progressive Humanist.
md
May 22nd, 2012
8:28 pm
“If you think this race is close, then you don’t understand how presidential elections work.”
Obama is under 50% in many of those States…..historically, folks who are undecided go with the new guy. I wouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch based on any current polls. Especially with the new religious war brewing inside the African American community……no, they won’t vote for Romney, but they very well may decide to sit it out.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:28 pm
“How to kill Osama Bin Laden”
An MP5 and good night vision goggles is the best way. Of course, the current Liar-in-Chief has probably never fired a gun in his lifetime, so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know how to kill Bin Laden, Progressive Humanist.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
8:32 pm
@md…more Republican math for you I see….$90 billion in assets and $172 billion in debts. Just what is 90 less 172? Since bond holders are secondary to most everyone I don’t think much would have been left. Even liquidating at 100 percent on appraised value…sure that would have happened.
DannyX
May 22nd, 2012
8:34 pm
Tiberius, why don’t you just make up a poll with Romney up by 10% in all the swing states?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:36 pm
“Tiberius, why don’t you just make up a poll with Romney up by 10% in all the swing states?”
Sorry, but I deal with reality.
You can do the fantasy if you like, DannyX, as it suits you better than me.
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
May 22nd, 2012
8:37 pm
Nobody would hire Emperor Nero to run a lemonade stand – he does not understand the concepts involved in a going concern.
md
May 22nd, 2012
8:40 pm
Might want to do the research on GM….their bondholders were secured……while the UAW pension (which got more shares) was unsecured……….
@@
May 22nd, 2012
8:40 pm
So Obama would have CEOs use their profit for what, if not to create new jobs and industries? Seems to me that’s what benefits communities, businesses and workers.
I guess they could turn it over to the government to create more green firms?
Green Firms Get Fed Cash, Give Execs Bonuses, Fail
President Obama’s Department of Energy helped finance several green energy companies that later fell into bankruptcy — but not before the firms doled out six-figure bonuses and payouts to top executives, a Center for Public Integrity and ABC News investigation found.
Obama’s dreams have us sucking on the exhaust pipe.
schnirt
@@
May 22nd, 2012
8:41 pm
Oops!
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/green-firms-fed-cash-give-execs-bonuses-fail/story?id=15851653
@@
May 22nd, 2012
8:43 pm
Let me rephrase that:
Obama’s successes have us sucking on the exhaust pipe.
Progressive Humanist
May 22nd, 2012
8:44 pm
Very wishful thinking on the part of the Redumblicans here to believe that Romney has much of a chance. Is he going to take all those states I listed above? No way. What are you stooges going to do when Obama wins another term? I guess you’ll just whine for another four more years and come up with more idiotic conspiracy theories to fuel your hatred and ignorance. And in every subsequent election after that there will be fewer and fewer angry dumb white old men but more and more diverse Americans who vote Democratic. You girls are a dying breed, literally.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
8:47 pm
“Is he going to take all those states I listed above? No way.”
That’s the nice thing about America, Progressive Humanist; we have actual elections to decide our leaders, not bone-headed bloggers who tell us what they aren’t thinking, but hoping.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
8:58 pm
@MD…”Might want to do the research on GM….their bondholders were secured……while the UAW pension (which got more shares) was unsecured……….”
The sad part, outside of you believing your own lies, is that someone might repeat them. GM had $27 billion in unsecured bonds and $6 billion in secured ones.
In fact the bondholders voted to accept the deal or it would have be quashed.
@@
May 22nd, 2012
9:02 pm
Joe Biden laid out what he sees as a distinct difference.
“Making money for investors is not the President’s job,” said the Vice President. “The President has a different job.”
Case in point?
Green Firms Get Fed Cash, Give Execs Bonuses, Fail
HECK! He didn’t even ask if I wanted to invest. Just took my money and lost it with HIS foray into venture capitalism.
Sister Sarah
May 22nd, 2012
9:05 pm
Jealousy, delusion, and obsession abounds on Kyle’s blog, and it starts with Kyle Wingfield. Kyle and his loyal posse of “Wingnuts” (how fitting!) who serial post and have absolutely nothing of substance ever to say, essentially other than the fact that they hate minorities, gays, foreigners and “liberals” (AKA dogwhistle for the three aforementioned. It’s sad really, really sad. I can only imagine all of you occupying the same ledge at the I-75/I-285 interchange the day after election day, totally consumed by your hatred that you just want to end it all. I will be tuned into the evening news checking for you, cheering you on with champagne glass in hand. Make it one for Guinness will ya; time it perfectly!
Progressive Humanist
May 22nd, 2012
9:06 pm
Another remarkably weak comeback from the stooge, Tiberius. I’ll let her embarrass herself on her own from here on out.
Mister.Earl
May 22nd, 2012
9:07 pm
Birther RSVP
As of Tuesday afternoon some 15,000 people and counting had already put their names on Left Action’s online petition asking Bennett to investigate whether Mitt Romney is really a unicorn. (Yes, a unicorn. The petition even has its own domain name: MittRomneyIsAUnicorn.com.) That’s more than 10 times the number of people who asked Bennett to investigate the president in the first place.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
9:09 pm
“and have absolutely nothing of substance ever to say, essentially other than the fact that they hate minorities, gays, foreigners”
Please back up the above nonsense with actual posts using the word “Hate”, Sister Sarah, and we might believe you have something of substance to add to this discussion.
Sister Sarah
May 22nd, 2012
9:12 pm
Wha,,,what’s that yelp?? Oh, that’s a hit dog hollerin’!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
9:13 pm
“In fact the bondholders voted to accept the deal or it would have be quashed.”
Let’s review how this works, JDW:
The government steps in an clears out every potential private suitor GM might have had.
The government comes in a produces a plan whereby bondholders get pennies on the dollar, or nothing – after the unions get their share which they never paid for.
The bondholders get to vote to approve the only deal in town due to government interference.
The only difference between this and the Mob is that you don;t get to elect mob members.
Mister.Earl
May 22nd, 2012
9:14 pm
The President Of The United States
President Obama said of Romney, “his main calling card for why he thinks he should be President is his business expertise … And when you’re President, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
9:14 pm
“Another remarkably weak comeback from the stooge, Tiberius.”
And yet you do not refute it, Progressive Humanist.
Go figure . . .
@@
May 22nd, 2012
9:16 pm
“Wingnuts” (how fitting!) who serial post and have absolutely nothing of substance ever to say, essentially other than the fact that they hate minorities, gays, foreigners
zzzzzzzzzzzz
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 22nd, 2012
9:19 pm
I can only imagine all of you occupying the same ledge at the I-75/I-285 interchange the day after election day, totally consumed by your hatred that you just want to end it all. I will be tuned into the evening news checking for you, cheering you on with champagne glass in hand.
Aahhh, spoken with the true spirit of Baghdad Bob.
You may want to start looking for a spider hole to hide in, lunatic.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
9:22 pm
Sister Sarah
If we are unfortunate enough to have to face suffering through another four years of the Oblamer malaise, I will not be on a ledge over 75/285, I assure you. I will be at a gold dealer, cashing out what is left of my Obama money for something real.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
9:32 pm
@Tiberius…I think your view of reality is a bit warped. It went more like this:
GM can no longer acquire the capital to function.
Bankruptcy is obvious but Chapter 11 Debtor in Possession funding cannot be raised and there are NO SUITORS that have adequate capital available to continue operations.
Unless the Government steps in with funding Chapter 7 is the only real alternative. With about twice the debt as the listed value of the assets, assets that will bring far less at a fire sale bondholders are staring a big fat zero in the eye.
The Government does step in and both bondholders and workers pensions receive something rather than nothing.
Today most still have a job, countless other companies survived where they would not have and America still has a competitive presence in the auto business.
The new GM is worth $30+ billion on the market and makes a profit.
However, misguided “conservatives” can’t abide the fact that a Democratic Government led by the hated Obama is responsible and continue to thrash about in denial.
@@
May 22nd, 2012
9:32 pm
Got H8? Left hurls slurs, racist epithets at Cory Booker for being honest about Bain attacks
Mirror, mirror…
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
9:36 pm
“GM can no longer acquire the capital to function.”
True.
“Bankruptcy is obvious but Chapter 11 Debtor in Possession funding cannot be raised and there are NO SUITORS that have adequate capital available to continue operations.”
False. The imminent government take over scared them all away.
Nice try.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
9:41 pm
Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”
Yeah, we have an admitted drug user in the White House, that said he embraced the lifestyle. He was obviously never caught, so he got by with it. So many others have paid dearly for experimenting with drugs. They were caught and have criminal records, making it almost impossible for them to get good jobs in this Oblamer economy. If they have a DOD they can not get a security clearance due to past drug use, but ole Barry gets one by proxy because he is the President. He would not otherwise qualify for one. Is that FAIR?
Is being forced to purchase health insurance you can not afford and think you do not need FAIR?
Oblamer is disingenuous and a charlatan.
JDW
May 22nd, 2012
9:41 pm
@Tiberius…name just one suitor that had 50 to100 billion liquid and ready to go in a short timefarme. Take your time you won’t find one. If you will clear the hate from tour brain you will remember Obama waited until the last moment to see if one stepped forward…they did not.
Mister.Earl
May 22nd, 2012
9:43 pm
For all the national chatter about a “post-racial America” following the 2008 election, America seems more obsessed with race than ever, if less honest about it, since Obama strode onto the national stage. If the official milestones of his administration thus far include the passage of the stimulus and the Affordable Care Act, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the endorsement of gay marriage, they have often been upstaged by the red-letter incidents of racial conflict that have steadily rolled out on a parallel track. Just a short list would include: the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Cambridge; the hysterical tea-party rally against health-care reform that showered obscenities on black congressmen entering the Capitol; the ousting of the African-American Department of Agriculture worker Shirley Sherrod after she was libeled as a racist; the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia; the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida; and, this month, the protest of more than 40 percent of West Virginia Democratic-primary voters, who pulled the lever for an obscure white federal-prison inmate rather than endorse a second run for the incumbent president of their own party. Last week brought the pièce de résistance: theTimes revelation of a proposed super-PAC TV commercial that would slime Obama as pretending to be a “metrosexual black Abe Lincoln.”
- Frank Rich, NYMagazine
You libs
May 22nd, 2012
9:44 pm
I’ve seen no sign of Bookman for days now.
Damn conservative media.
Rafe Hollister
May 22nd, 2012
9:46 pm
Oblamer is the first President to decide it is his job to play referee and enforce the Fairness Rules that he writes. Judge Roy Bean did the same thing, but he was not President, just dictator of the land west of the Pecos.
Was it Fair to Mexico for the Oblamer regime to give guns to the cartels to use against the Mexican people and their government?
Mister.Earl
May 22nd, 2012
9:46 pm
Overanalyzing President Obama’s Passing Form
Two days ago, President Obama was snapped by White House photographer Pete Souza on the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field tossing a football to Lord knows who. It’s a nice shot — Obama looks downright statuesque and seems, at a minimum, not totally unfamiliar around a pigskin. And yet — probably because he is not actually a quarterback — there was also something off about Obama’s throwing form. As part of our never-ending quest to nitpick everything in the world, we asked Chris Brown — who has written about football for the New York Times, Grantland, and his own site, Smart Football, as well as in his new book, The Essential Smart Football — to take an unnecessarily critical look at Obama’s mechanics, and tell us what he’s doing wrong.
“I’ve seen worse,” Brown writes in an e-mail. “His arm and shoulder look like they are at a solid right angle, and he appears to be doing a good job of driving his right arm and elbow back to generate force so that his throwing arm will be pulled through like a whip. But there are big concerns: His front leg is way overextended — his knee is back behind his heel — so he’ll never be able to fully transfer his weight over his knee to be able to properly follow through and really generate force on the ball.”
- Dan Amira
@@
May 22nd, 2012
9:49 pm
Oops! Should’ve warned everyone about the foul language eminating from those Cory H8ers.
Geez!
Martin Williams
May 22nd, 2012
9:50 pm
Kyle, I am praying very hard everday now for Mitt Romney to be our next president because I want to remind you after 3 years of his(Mitt) presidency, the US un-employment will be in DOUBLE degit. You know very well that Obama has created more jobs in 3+ years as president than George W Bush did in 8 years. How many jobs have the tax break for people like you created in the last 10+ years?. Obama should have done away with that tax break concept create jobs. You all think we are stupid. Tell you what, I know tax breaks will never create jobs as the GOP doctrine wants most Americans to believe. Hope Romney wins in November so some preachers that call themselves people of God will preach less about hate. Sure you heard about those two stupid preachers in North Carolina, not surprise a bit, thanks.
bluecoat
May 22nd, 2012
9:51 pm
Elect Romney-Open the flood gates.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
9:59 pm
Elect Romney. Let America be America again.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 22nd, 2012
10:07 pm
JDW: name just one suitor that had 50 to100 billion liquid and ready to go in a short timefarme
———————–
Highly profitable GM’s market cap as of today is $34 billion. It would seem Super Capitalist Obozo overpaid.
ragnar danneskjold
May 22nd, 2012
10:10 pm
Dear Kyle, you could have written a 10,000 page essay about the topics Obama does not understand. Be real: if the election is “about” anything other than community organizing, it will necessarily be about a topic Obama does not understand.
@@
May 22nd, 2012
10:12 pm
Martin and AmVet have similar interests. AmVet’s all over the preacher thingy at Bookman’s.
@@
May 22nd, 2012
10:12 pm
schnirt
@@
May 22nd, 2012
10:18 pm
ATLANTA — A herd of 100 sheep are being brought to Chastain Park for several weeks to help save trees.
Atlanta’s progressive community?
Dusty
May 22nd, 2012
10:19 pm
Sniff…………
OH, cry me a river forever more.
The Reds beat the Braves three to four.
There just aint no justice
For the proud and the bestus!
So g’nite, g’nite, one and all.
I’ll dream of a run with every ball.
With the Braves a’smiling and standin’ tall!
Class of '98
May 22nd, 2012
10:50 pm
Kyle, you are a very talented columnist. Keep up the good work.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 22nd, 2012
11:14 pm
“name just one suitor that had 50 to100 billion liquid and ready to go in a short timefarme.”
What part of “they were all scared away” do you NOT understand, JDW?
DAVETV
May 22nd, 2012
11:25 pm
If we really must have a President who is going to use our taxes to invest in or bail out companies, I’d rather it be one who knows how to maximize profits. I’d also like it to be one knows how to trim the fat to make our Government at least break even. The Federal Government spends $120,000+ every SECOND of every day! I consider that a spending problem.
I’d also like a President who didn’t continuously place blame on others. One who didn’t constantly attempt to drive a wedge between parties, sex, religions and race.
I’d like a President who has shown he can work well with others. A President who understands that decades spent teaching a college course does not qualify you for a political appointment. One who does not surround himself with utter morons in order to make himself feel superior.
I’d like a President who has no reason to hide every detail about his life from the day he was born until he took office.
I’d like a President who doesn’t view our Constitution as an impediment to his agenda. One who understands the meaning of enumerated powers.
I’d like to feel confident that my President truly loves and is proud of our Country and it’s history.
I’d like my President not to be a pathological liar.
Do these things seem like too much to ask of our President?
Now that you know my wishes for our President… into what group would all you honest, hardworking, tax-paying citizens lump me?
md
May 22nd, 2012
11:26 pm
“What are you stooges going to do when Obama wins another term?”
Very well may happen…..but odds are Congress may go all R…..so Obama is essentially neutered.
md
May 22nd, 2012
11:43 pm
jdw…..the bondholders got hosed…..no if’s and’s or but’s……so spin it any way that makes you feel good about yourself.
“The revised offer to the holders of $27 billion in unsecured GM bonds amounted to a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum: Go along with what the government auto task force’s proposal or be left holding the assets a new GM doesn’t want _ ones with presumably little value at all.”
“The committee said it would go along with the new deal, but it was still unfair.
“While the committee continues to remain troubled by preferential treatment that the UAW VEBA is receiving compared to the bondholder class _ rejecting this offer in the expectation that the bondholders will do better in a litigated outcome was a risk the committee is unwilling to take,” the committee said in a statement.”
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
12:15 am
Here’s an interesting article on the GM bail-out.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/20/gms-pathetic-stock-price-and-the-30-billion-taxpayer-tab
My take on it is that because we propped up GM, that stole the opportunity for other car companies to take over that market share. Do you think people wouldn’t buy any more cars unless they could get a GM product? Other car companies would get to step up and fill that demand. They would get to make more cars. They would have to hire more workers. Expand or build factories. Perhaps companies who know how to run a business successfully should be the ones who benefit. Instead, we penalize success and reward failure. On what economic model is that policy based?
Mr. Rob B
May 23rd, 2012
12:26 am
Obama has now explicitly revealed that he really doesn’t understand what it means to be president. A president’s job is DEFINITELY to maximize profits: the profits of the American people. Obama has now revealed his weakness-he not only doesn’t understand the business and the economy-he does not understand what a president’s job is supposed to be. Let’s stop electing people like Obama who are are novices when it comes to leadership.
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
12:50 am
He wants all Americans to have a chance to make a living compared to the gop that just want the wealthy to control all the wealth.
bain is fair game cons so stop crying about it.
Ray
May 23rd, 2012
3:57 am
And, Republicans error in saying the wealthiest of us are the “job creators”. Customers create business, and the more customers you have, the better the chances are that you will decide to hire more folks, despite the current tax rates or what you think they might be next year. The biggest investment group we have in this country are 401k savers. They have no idea what their ultimate tax rate is going to be, and they certainly get no special capital gains tax breaks, as all of their withdrawals will be taxed as ordinary income, yet they continue to invest, no matter what party is in office; in fact, 401k balances just recently reach an all time high.
Jack
May 23rd, 2012
6:00 am
Obama likely skipped over accounting while in school. If you can’t make a profit, you need to be working for the government.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
6:30 am
Obozo’s presidency and his current campaign is no more thoughtful or meaningful than most of the libtard posts here. Just so many lies, distortions, snarkiness, and distractions.
He truly is an amateur.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Amateur-Edward-Klein/dp/1596987855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337768971&sr=8-1
#Occupy my desk...
May 23rd, 2012
6:44 am
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-schools-draft-spending-1443910.html
but wait, I thought the recession was over and Obama had saved us, the auto industry and orphans from a burning building, yet this article says my taxes need to go up another 25% over last years 25% increase because the economy “is still just that bad.” I thought he fixed it!?! Could that have been a bunch of lies?
@@
May 23rd, 2012
7:27 am
People need a paycheck to become customers.
Willis
May 23rd, 2012
7:35 am
Romney didn’t get $250,000,000 by creating jobs. He got $250,000,000 by destroying jobs. Wingfield, where do you think that money came from? He didn’t stand with a bucket on the sidewalk taking coins, that’s for sure.
Don Abernethy
May 23rd, 2012
7:46 am
Whether you like Romney or not the fact is that he does have years of business experience. Obama has NO business experience. Who would you want to manage your money??????
rwcole
May 23rd, 2012
7:47 am
Romney’s “job” was to buy a business and fire people. Fewer salaries to pay looks like more revenue. Borrow against the company. Bankrupt the company. Sell off the pieces. Pocket millions while hundreds of Americans lose their jobs. And Kyle is his cheerleader. Conservative? I think not.
GT
May 23rd, 2012
7:54 am
Romney brought the subject front and center. Romney said he had created 100,000 jobs and left it at that. You would have to look hard to realize Romney was every governor of the state of Mass. The misdirection is calculated.
If it is raining outside and a neighbor insist it is sun shining, somewhere in that conversation it is not rude to point out it is very wet outside.
The polls in the country favor small business, somewhere in the 90%s. They do not like too big to fail and have unfavorable rating for any category Romney’s private occupation falls in. Romney got a taste of that in Michigan and will get a lot more of it as his campaign progresses. It is who can get a message out and once Romney is striped of his superpacs and has to stand on a stage with O these points Obama is making now will resonate to the American people. It is like tainting a jury pool before a big trail. When the debates begin the swing voters will go, “so that is what he was talking about Romney.” Worked for Newt in SC and Ga. O won’t run out of money and his character is far above that of Newt’s,
BB
May 23rd, 2012
7:55 am
“Customers create business, and the more customers you have, the better the chances are that you will decide to hire more folks”
The “you” in that sentence is a business owner. I wish we could get off the whole “creator”, “destroyer” business. Business owners do hire people when business is good and taxes do matter to them.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
8:02 am
The Grand Poobah/Head FlipFlop now backing away from the Bain issue.
LOL…another pig in a poke.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
8:07 am
@Tirberius..”What part of “they were all scared away” do you NOT understand, JDW?”
Apparently you do believe in ghosts…or are so consumed with angst you can’t function. Apparitions cannot be “scared away”. Do some research, find one interested party. In any merger/takeover if you can’t make a list of 10-12 suitors you have a problem. There was not a single one.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
8:19 am
“A president’s job is DEFINITELY to maximize profits: the profits of the American people.”
A person who has written that stupidity wants to criticize the President?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
8:19 am
“Apparitions cannot be “scared away”.”
But investors can.
GT
May 23rd, 2012
8:26 am
We are washed with Madison Avenue propaganda of how much better life is with big business. Mindless Americans follow the direction the wind of these ads lead them. How many times have I wanted to do a counter ad to Home Depot telling them the customer service they brag on is non existent or Verizon who sneaks into my billing over a few months and is a constant challenge to keep honest on overcharging me for things I didn’t order. Profit comes to a line of almost being criminal and I am sure in the too big to fail banks it has crossed that line as it has many other places the propaganda is steering us away from.
I don’t think our forefathers envisioned this, I don’t even think our fathers envisioned a Wall Street too complicated to regulate, an enemy too quick to take advantage of our weaknesses which is supervision. What amazes me is the “slow it down conservatives” are the catalyst of these card tricks. It is a way for a minority of thinkers to keep control of a quickly changing world because like our enemies these weaknesses in our system aid the GOP agenda. You got to keep an eye on people who think our country’s bad news is their good news. Wall Street calls it short selling.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
8:29 am
Short selling. And how do you think the GODS you worship, the Kennedys, made their money? Papa Joe saw the crash coming and was short selling everything in site. But I guess when a liberal/democrat from Spam-alot does it, then its OK!!!
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
8:32 am
“A president’s job is DEFINITELY to maximize profits: the profits of the American people. A person who has written that stupidity wants to criticize the President?”
So that wouldnt be the Presidents Job? So you agree with the Grand Poobah squashing productivity, damning capitalism, encouraging welfare, setting goals in ObamaCare to increase the food stamp enrollment?
Good plan.
BB
May 23rd, 2012
8:38 am
For cryin out loud, now there’s a problem with shorting a stock. Good grief.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
8:42 am
Short selling is necessary to maintain and orderly and competitive market. Perhaps before spewing sewage from your piehole some research, about the stock market in general, would be necessary.
jj
May 23rd, 2012
8:44 am
How is what Rattner and Obama did to GM any different than Bain?
Hundreds of dealerships CLOSED, multiple assembyl plants CLOSED, bond holders screwed when bankruptecy filed, 10’s of thousands unemployed………….all in order to save GM. Liberal=Good, Conservative=Bad
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
8:48 am
Perhaps Kyle should have entitled this piece, ‘Liberals whine about that which they cannot understand”.
Of course, he could use that title for almost anything he posts . . .
GT
May 23rd, 2012
8:54 am
I look at my country kind of like my family. If I find out a family member is in trouble do I try to economically take advantage for him or her? Do I rejoice when I hear bad news about my family member? You use to not even have to ask that question but somehow our lust and greed along with the help of misdirection of a right wing agenda calling itself religious has clouded our judgement.
Darwin
May 23rd, 2012
8:58 am
Republicans gave us the economy in 2008 that THEY know about.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
8:59 am
I think its your lack of leadership within, your family, which you may want to make a focus. Dont pretend to give a helping hand when you have not the knowledge to do so.
Nothing but empty words coming from you and your family. But is certainly sounds nice. *a tear*.
LeeH1
May 23rd, 2012
9:01 am
The main point is that Mitt is white and Obama is not. Saying he is an alien, or that he doesn’t understand business, or he is a communist or Black Panther or whatever are just ways of saying the first item.
Mitt is white and Obama is not. Unless you discuss the issues, this is all you are saying.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
9:02 am
GT, I think your misguided sense of reality is getting the better of you.
Please post any comments about anyone “rejoining when they hear bad news” about this economy or this country.
You’re being brainwashed, son.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
9:04 am
iggy @8:32 am: “So that wouldnt be the Presidents Job? So you agree with the Grand Poobah squashing productivity, damning capitalism, encouraging welfare, setting goals in ObamaCare to increase the food stamp enrollment?”
More stupidity and lies.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:05 am
LeeH1
May 23rd, 2012
9:01 am
Good point. So what you are saying is that Herman Cain and/or any other black person that votes for Romney is a racist.
Thanks for clearing up that matter!
PS…Im putting a gold star beside your name on the employee of the day calendar.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
9:05 am
Wow. The race card from such a deep thinker as LeeH1.
Of course, the actual issues and policies ARE being discussed, Lee.
Quite a bit more effectively than the lamestream media has covered, in fact.
TruthBe
May 23rd, 2012
9:07 am
Progressive Humanist: CAUTION Angry N e g r o Syndrome.
TruthBe
May 23rd, 2012
9:12 am
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
12:50 am
He wants all Americans to have a chance to make a living compared to the gop that just want the wealthy to control all the wealth.
bain is fair game cons so stop crying about it.
So is racist, radical, communist, Chicago Pay to Play Thug, corrupt career politician, Muslim brotherhood black panther want be Obama.
md
May 23rd, 2012
9:15 am
“Customers create business, and the more customers you have, the better the chances are that you will decide to hire more folks, despite the current tax rates or what you think they might be next year.”
Consumers are just people with money to spend without a product to spend it on. Did the consumer finance, develop, and produce the iphone? ipad? toilet paper?
The answer of course is no……there are 2 sides to the equation, but without products there is no consumer.
As for maximizing profits……of course that is the President’s job, for it is the private sector that must generate all the funds to not only run the private sector but to run the getting way to big government………….without those profits the entire system goes down.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
9:15 am
The main point is that Mitt is white and Obama is not.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
md
May 23rd, 2012
9:20 am
“I look at my country kind of like my family. If I find out a family member is in trouble do I try to economically take advantage for him or her?”
You may be the lucky one, but in my family we have a few deadbeats…..took us a few years to realize that enabling is the disease, not the cure. It isn’t called tough love for nothing, but the giving stopped years ago…….even in a family one gets tired of being used.
GT
May 23rd, 2012
9:21 am
How convinent of God and religion to allow so many of us to just wake up in the morning and whatever our mood is that day that becomes the religion we follow. A gay guy iritates me so now I find proof that is a sin, I like a glass of wine so did Jesus but not on Sunday. Hitler was a generation too soon he could have use these ad campaigns to cover a lot of his thinking and might even have gone to heaven with the right public relations company.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
9:27 am
@Tiberius…”But investors can.”
Apparently you are under the incredible delusion that by stating something you immediately make it so…all empirical evidence to the contrary. You have bellowed on about these phantom investors for 2 days now and yet cannot name a single one. More importantly there is not a historical record of a single potential suitor.
Sorry, the Republican strategy repeating a falsehood enough times to have it believed simply doesn’t wash here.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
9:28 am
Looks like GT just took his first hit off the bong for the day . . .
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:28 am
GT. Heres a tip. Short sell Dell or get in a postition to do so. Then you might feed your family, enable the enablers and make a little cash. In doing so you might acheive the Messianic ascension you so desire.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
9:35 am
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/22/cbo-says-us-likely-to-fall-fiscal-cliff-if-bush-era-tax-cuts-allowed-to-expire/
Well the solution the libs have been touting for years turns out not to be so palatable. I guess maybe without the tax cuts we might be worse off than we are. Lib/Oblama solutions are the wrong, go figure. If they had the answers we wouldn’t be in the second longest economic recovery in history.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
9:36 am
JDW, here is reality. You should try it sometime.
How long do you think GM was looking to government for a bailout? Weeks? Months? You think they didn’t know their economic model was in the crapper for more than a year? Given past bailouts, why shouldn’t they first look to government to bail them out?
Which they did.
Given that REALITY, who on the street is going to step up and take on government?
Nobody.
You can’t get to Step 3 until you do Steps 1 and 2. Nor do you need Step 3 if Step 1 satisfies your requirements. Step 1 was seeking a government bailout. Private suitors were Step 3, which was negated when Step 1’s course was undertaken.
I suggest you research the theory “Cause and Effect” a bit more closely.
GT
May 23rd, 2012
9:44 am
.And md what do your deadbeat relatives have to say about you?
We have a few of all kinds in my family, I’m from the south, makes for an interesting brew. The human condition effects all of us. I always enjoy the Prodigal Son and think at different times in my own life ,more less ,someone else’s, all those characters have been me. I still think some of my old relatives are surprised I am a grown man, even a grandfather.
When I talk about selling short, I am not talking about destructive natures, I am talking about a majority of America that have earnestly tried to make their way. Illness strikes or divorce or whatever. This is not a feel good moment where I am going to baptist the victim with tough love and go off rectifying my selfishness as wisdom instead of sorriness. Tough love is something you in your gut do not want to do but is good for the patient. Tough love too often to too many is an easy way to do nothing.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
9:45 am
JDW
Your name one investor seems lame to me. I know little about the GM bankruptcy, but can you name one investor that saved KMart. How did KMart get out of bankruptcy and acquire Sears in less than one year? Seems strange to me.
Why could Ford not have bought GM and kept it operational? Why could GM not survived a bankruptcy like KMart or Delta?
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
9:46 am
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
12:50 am
He wants all Americans to have a chance to make a living compared to the gop that just want the wealthy to control all the wealth.
bain is fair game cons so stop crying about it.
Since jobs and healthcare are owed to you by the Gub’mint, perhaps O’numbnuts can buy you a car and a house too?
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
9:50 am
From Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein in The Post a few days ago….
“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
Sounds like many of the bloggers here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:58 am
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
9:50 am
Seems liberal desparation has set in.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
9:59 am
@Rafe…”can you name one investor that saved KMart. How did KMart get out of bankruptcy and acquire Sears in less than one year? Seems strange to me.”
Nice softball… Thanks it goes directly to my point. Edward Lampert…it’s easy to look up and you can track the deal from start to finish. There is no such activity or interest recorded in the case of GM.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
10:04 am
Nice deflection, JDW. (And covered a month ago on this very blog)
Typical when you can’t make a cogent argument.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
10:06 am
@Tiberius…”Given past bailouts, why shouldn’t they first look to government to bail them out?”
Delusion continues…GM came to the government after, long after, they had exhausted all other avenues. They didn’t want to, management lost their jobs, but they had no choice. Read the timeline…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/general-motors/8141256/General-Motors-timeline-of-the-thrills-and-spills-1908-2011.html
Heck they were so desperate they even tried Chrysler before the government.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
10:09 am
@Tiberius…”Typical when you can’t make a cogent argument.”
And yet, you still can’t name just one…
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
10:11 am
“GM came to the government after, long after, they had exhausted all other avenues.”
False. And your timeline doesn’t back up your contention.
Nice try, JDW.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
10:13 am
Can’t name that which does not exist, JDW. I thought we covered that in the whole “Cause and Effect” theory.
You’re slower than usual on the uptake this morning, son.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
10:21 am
@Tiberius…”Can’t name that which does not exist, JDW”
Wow you finally got it…psssssst thats why it had to be the government.
blackstarline
May 23rd, 2012
10:21 am
“If a company is not trying to “maximize profits,” it is not a) trying to satisfy the most customers and thereby earn their business; b) recruiting and retaining the work force needed to deliver appealing products or services; or c) creating or freeing up the capital needed to expand its business.”
Most companies I know are trying to “maximize profits” by a) forcing customers to buy their crappy products by eliminating the competition, and colluding with the remaining competitors to offer the same crap. b) constantly recruiting the cheapest labor available (especially illegals) and firing employees as soon as even cheaper labor is available. C) hoarding capital in order buy back their stock for short term profits, or buy off politician for even more tax concessions/subsidies from the state (corporate welfare checks)
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
10:24 am
Keep fantasizing, JDW. The government was the first suitor, which eliminated all others.
Cause.
And Effect.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:27 am
” a) forcing customers to buy their crappy products by blah blah blah…”
Lay off the weed, you’re paranoid.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:31 am
The Euro is tanking. Yet another grand liberal scheme that is failing.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
10:38 am
@Tiberius… and now you are back to my 9:50…it’s like Mann and Ornstein were talking about you when they said “ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”
Especially the facts part.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
10:39 am
“it’s like Mann and Ornstein were talking about you”
They were debunked as well.
You really need to keep up with reality, JDW.
saywhat?
May 23rd, 2012
10:51 am
Its not the facts which confuse lil tibby so much JDW. Its the fact that as a conservative, he is naturally just a low effort thinker.
http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/16/0146167212439213.abstract
md
May 23rd, 2012
11:00 am
“And md what do your deadbeat relatives have to say about you?”
Don’t really much care…..I tried, now it’s up to them.
Do you help an alcoholic by giving him alcohol?
Help starts with the individual…..they first must want to participate otherwise enabling does no good. Enabling is a short term solution that causes a bigger long term problem.
Look at society….we choose everything we do, and 1/3 of kids are currently dropping out of assistance program #1 (which by the way costs society 300B a year)….this in turn puts them on the hard road which more often than not leads to assistance programs 2, 3, 4 etc……it’s an endless cycle of enabling…..it may help giving them the short term assistance, but does nothing but compound the problem down the road.
Assistance needs to be conditional…………
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
11:20 am
“Its not the facts which confuse lil tibby so much JDW. Its the fact that as a conservative, he is naturally just a low effort thinker.”
And yet I’m not a conservative, saywhat.
Of course, you’d need a working brain to know that.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
11:23 am
JDW
Thanks for the tip on Edward Lampert. I learned a lot about business takeovers. He looks to be another venture capitalist that rode in on his white horse and temporarily saved KMart and Sears. Unlike Romney, he is failing. Appears that Sears is on the ropes again, however. Wonder if Barry Oblamer will ride in and save Sears, for his hometown?
Maybe Barry can become the CEO of Sears after Nov 6. I mean, he has such a good track record of buying companies with our tax dollars, downsizing them, laying employees off, giving them to the union, and bragging about his success. A true venture capitalist or since the government supplied the money for the purchase maybe a venture fascist.
md
May 23rd, 2012
11:26 am
The question that we should be asking about GM is why?
Why were they special?
And before answering, do the research on the number of companies/industries/people that were not deemed “special”……..
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
11:32 am
“The question that we should be asking about GM is why?
Why were they special?”
Three letters: UAW
redneckbluedog
May 23rd, 2012
11:43 am
Mitt Romney has no fight and no spine……he is a bully, but not a fighter…he just pays other people to do his bidding for him…..Let GM go, let housing go, let bin Laden go, flip-flop on Romneycare, let Bain go unanswered…..
But I did hear he was looking to PURCHASE one…..or have one granted to him by the “Great Wizard of Kolob”……
md
May 23rd, 2012
11:45 am
“Three letters: UAW”
The question was targeted to those that don’t know that
redneckbluedog
May 23rd, 2012
11:47 am
I was actually on the fence until Monday….(of not voting)….but I’m coming down on the side of the Kenyan…..he’s a fighter…..
The first qualification to be President is to have a backbone…and say what you want about Obozo, Obarry, Owebama, the half-white non-citizen President….HE HAS A BACKBONE…….as opposed to Mitt, the Mormon flip-flop yellow-belly…..
NOT GOING TO VOTE FOR A COWARD FOR PRESIDENT….!!!!
md
May 23rd, 2012
11:48 am
I see some here only use their computers for posting……google is your friend.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
11:52 am
Looks like redneckbluedog got into some bad ’shine this morning . . .
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
12:00 pm
redneckbluedog was about as likely to vote for Romney as Michelle.
Oblama really showed his backbone when he endorsed/didn’t endorse same sex marriage. He said that was a states right issue, the only issue that is states right, not healthcare, not drug laws, but same sex marriage?
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
12:04 pm
redneckbluedog
May 23rd, 2012
11:47 am
Funny!
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
12:06 pm
Senate Hearings/3 ring circus to commence on fb. Yes, our haughty leaders are gonna, yet again, attempt to crucify Wall Street instead of doing their jobs ie reparing the economy.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
12:12 pm
Well, it is a nice day and I have already had a good laugh this morning. While checking out the AJC home page section on Opinion I noticed that Bookman is writing that Obama is “the most frugal president since Ike”. Whoooeee!!
I think they must have changed the definition of “frugal”. If Obama gets any more “frugal” we will be lower than Greece. That’s mighty low, folks!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
12:15 pm
With Bookman, up is down and black is white. Reality has no meaning whatsoever in is world.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
12:19 pm
At one time I valued bookmans opinions. Didnt much agree with them but thought he, at times, had some valid points, arguments.
“Ill get on my knees and pray, I
WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN”:
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
12:20 pm
I kinda miss Cynthia “CrazyVille Tucker.” She was always good for a laugh.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 23rd, 2012
12:21 pm
The president didn’t even have an opponent in Kentucky, but with 99 percent of the vote counted, Obama took just 57.9 percent of the vote, with the remaining more than 42 percent of ballots cast for “uncommitted.”
And to think, our deluded little dummycrat friends think they are going to win against Romney, hahahahahahahaha, what a bunch of klowns.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
12:28 pm
It gave me a chckle, Tiberius. He throws out the “bait” every day as a feast for his followers. Doesn’t matter how contrived it is. Truth is not a factor.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
12:41 pm
Iggy, 12:19
I know what you mean. There were a few liberals at Bookman’s that I enjoyed. But the rest were so extreme, I began to feel that all liberals were mean as snakes. I left because I knew that feeling was wrong. I don’t agree with most liberal politics but that does not mean I want to hate liberals. Not in America or anywhere else. I just want us to work out our problems with a better level of understanding between us.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
12:52 pm
Just read Bookman’s fiction, Dusty.
It’s the same old lies, damned lies and statistics stuff he’s used before.
Desperation makes for some pretty funny stuff over there.
saywhat?
May 23rd, 2012
1:06 pm
Dusty, iggy and lil tibby discussing facts and reality is like Michael Jordan, Paul Schaeffer, and Samuel L Jackson discussing hair gel.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
1:09 pm
I saw Jackson in Pulp Fiction with a head full of hair and hair full of gerry-curl so you point is mute, I mean moot
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
1:23 pm
You’d think a person who makes their living as a writer would know the meaning of the word “frugal”.
But then, like many things in the so-called liberal mind, reality is ignored (if ever even known to begin with).
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
1:27 pm
Get ready…The Grecians and EuroTrash are about to blowup the world.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
1:36 pm
@Tiberius…”It’s the same old lies, damned lies and statistics stuff he’s used before.”
You did notice that the source was that bastion of liberal thinking The Wall Street Journal…or did that small item escape you in your zeal to declare your contempt?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
1:44 pm
JDW, perhaps you should take my advice and look up the meaning of the word “frugal”.
Unless you’d like to be a stupid and lazy as Bookman.
Wallis the dog
May 23rd, 2012
1:52 pm
Kyle, Your post today is excellent. Based on many of the comments, economic ignorance is an epidemic.
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
1:54 pm
I posted this earlier but received no feed back. Posting again to see if someone can tell me where I’m wrong in my thinking.
My take on it is that because we propped up GM, that stole the opportunity for other car companies to take over that market share. Do you think people wouldn’t buy any more cars unless they could get a GM product? Other car companies would get to step up and fill that demand. They would get to make more cars. They would have to hire more workers. Expand or build factories. Perhaps companies who know how to run a business successfully should be the ones who benefit. Instead, we penalize success and reward failure. On what economic model is that policy based?
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
1:54 pm
@Tiberius…”perhaps you should take my advice and look up the meaning of the word “frugal”.”
Tell it to the Wall Street Journal….
“There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear.
Why do people think Obama has spent like a drunken sailor? It’s in part because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the federal budget. ”
WOW sounds like they know you too!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
1:59 pm
JDW, just because one person at the WSJ doesn’t know his a$$ from his elbow around a dictionary, doesn’t mean that someone who is supposed to be versed in the same should repeat the mistake.
That is what lazy, stupid people do.
Welcome to that club, son.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
2:00 pm
@DAVETV…”My take on it is that because we propped up GM, that stole the opportunity for other car companies to take over that market share.”
No doubt it eliminated an opportunity for other car companies, primarily those from other countries to increase market share, raise prices and make more money. Question is to who’s benefit would that have been? Certainly not the 75,000+ GM workers or the 100,000’s employed in the GM supply chain, the state and local governments in those locations, the federal government or the taxpayers.
That’s why it takes a different skill set to be President, you need to think more strategically rather than tactically.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:03 pm
Dave, probably mox nix. The total demand for autos would remain close to the same. Some would benefit, as the GM customer would now prefer to purchase “brand X.” The workforce would most likely not recover, as the employees at the remaining companys would be expected to double up production. Some layed off employees would be absorbed but not all.
New factories could be built but why not change the GM symbol, on the front of the building to “Brand X.” Would be much cheaper to simply retool existing factories.
Agreed. Obama and his cronies prefer to reward failure. As example just look at one of Obamas first appointees, one Joe Biden.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
2:04 pm
@Tiberius…”JDW, just because one person at the WSJ doesn’t know his a$$ from his elbow around a dictionary, doesn’t mean that someone who is supposed to be versed in the same should repeat the mistake. That is what lazy, stupid people do. Welcome to that club, son.”
Thing is I believe you are the individual that has great difficulty distinguishing between holes in the ground and ones in your nether regions. As for the “club”…it’s all yours…why there’s your picture right in the top slot.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
2:05 pm
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plea to California voters: ‘Please increase taxes temporarily’
A TEMPORARY tax!!??!!
I’ve never known of such a thing.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:07 pm
Before Jerry was elected he went on camera and professed what we all know. He stated, in so many words. “We as policitians have no plan, we will tell you we have a plan but we dont.”.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
2:14 pm
Since you’re obviously the lazy one, JDW, I’ve done the work for you:
frugal
1. economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful
2. entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty
Nowhere does the meaning of the word mean “not increasing spending”. Doesn’t matter if your spending doesn’t go up exponentially, son. What matters to meet the definition of frugal is that you don’t spend what you don’t have!.
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
2:28 pm
The bain attack is working .
It did not matter to cons but it matters to the majority of the American.
willard blood in the water.
Finish him of President Obama.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:30 pm
Speaking of Willard, where is Finn? I hope he hasnt jumped from the nearest bridge due to his overly aggressive facebook stock purchase.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
2:30 pm
In European Debt Crisis, ‘The Street Has Taken Control’
It happens in three ways: the ballot box, social unrest and the financial system. All of them were pervasive during the Latin American crisis.
Now in Europe, we’ve already seen that happen in dramatic fashion. First, it came at the ballot boxes in France and Greece, where voters rejected austerity measures and backed candidates who promised to lessen the pain.
Second, there’s been social unrest—not just in Greece, where it’s been the worst, but in waves of protests across Europe, including Spain, Portugal, and France.
Events of the past week suggest “the street” is now beginning to take control of the financial system.
Mobocracy!
They’re making a run on the banks. This ain’t gonna end up well for any of us.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
2:31 pm
1 Trillion dollar porkulus bill = frugal. It is a new world!
Cash for clunkers= frugal.
Solyndra/green energy = frugal
GSA conference = frugal
Michelle’s frugal vacations.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
2:34 pm
@Tiberius…And Mr. Obama has the most economical in use or expenditure as it relates to the federal budget since Ike…so say the numbers right there in black and white.
Just because you don’t agree doesn’t change a thing. You can have your opinion but facts are facts.
BTW the use of the word has no relation to spending what you have or have not…that is not in the definition that you so kindly pasted.
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
2:37 pm
Anerican people. Ooops.
The American people will not elect a vulture capitalist the loves to fire people.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
2:39 pm
“BTW the use of the word has no relation to spending what you have or have not…that is not in the definition that you so kindly pasted.”
Yeah, JDW, ’cause “entailing little expense; requiring few resources;” means so many different things, especially when you don’t know how to READ!
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
2:39 pm
Austerity failed in Europe and the gop still wants it to fail here for this election.
Country first?
No, wealthy first.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:45 pm
Austerity failed because the EuroTrash is still the EuroTrash. A group of self-serving, procrastinating idiots. Those folks cannot get along and will not. Its a prime example of the why productive peoples get pulled into the ditch by the non-producers. And also an assault on all this talk of fairness..
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
2:45 pm
@Tiberuis…”“entailing little expense; requiring few resources;”
And yet not a word in there about income. See income-spending=deficit. As usual you are only talking only about spending and apparently don’t even know it.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:48 pm
PS…since when has Europe been a Country?
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
2:50 pm
“No, wealthy first.”
Agreed. The common man/worker-bee, who is waist deep in entitlements, early retirement with full benefits, ie wealth, etc. refuse to take measures that would allow their own Country to remain solvent. So yes, in this case, Wealthy First.
md
May 23rd, 2012
2:52 pm
“No doubt it eliminated an opportunity for other car companies, primarily those from other countries to increase market share, raise prices and make more money. Question is to who’s benefit would that have been? ”
Not sure about might have been, but the Italians were a definite………..
saywhat?
May 23rd, 2012
2:56 pm
Somebody forgot to tell lil tibby that facts tend to have a liberal bias. Well, I’m off to Bookman’s. Have fun here at the kids table!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
3:01 pm
“Austerity failed in Europe and the gop still wants it to fail here for this election.”
getaclue, I suggest you re-read Kyle’s column of about 2 weeks ago which showed that austerity didn’t even occur in Europe.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
3:03 pm
Income only comes into the frugal equation, JDW, when you need to figure out if you have any.
When you don’t, the frugal person doesn’t spend what he doesn’t have.
Nice try, but another failure on your part, son.
md
May 23rd, 2012
3:04 pm
“The American people will not elect a vulture capitalist the loves to fire people.”
So the venture capitalist that closed all those car dealerships should not be elected??
md
May 23rd, 2012
3:05 pm
“Austerity failed in Europe and the gop still wants it to fail here for this election.”
So now their plan is to borrow money and spend it?? Isn’t that what got them to this point?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
3:10 pm
It’s pretty bad when you have to school liberals on the meaning of words when they start making up their own definitions.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
3:16 pm
getalife
May 23rd, 2012
2:37 pm
Anerican people. Ooops.
The American people will not elect a vulture capitalist the loves to fire people.
The American people will elect a vulture capitalist that is going to fire your clueless “Teleprompter Puppet” and the “First Vacationer”. Her private chef’s and bartenders can go too!
That Black guy
May 23rd, 2012
3:26 pm
It’s also interesting that he allows the coded racial overtones on his blog
_________________________________
What are the “coded racial overtones”?
I didn’t see any.
Hillbilly D
May 23rd, 2012
3:28 pm
The total demand for autos would remain close to the same.
Interesting thing that I learned in my many years in car dealerships, is that before a given model year, industry analysts can tell you with a great deal of accuracy, how many vehicles will be sold in the U.S., in the coming year. Predictions on which company will sell how many, usually aren’t too accurate but they seldom are very far off on the total number sold. So each year, the different companies are basically fighting for a share of what is a pretty finite pie.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
3:35 pm
Investors fear end of world as we know it
First came news on the “taxmageddon” front: the Congressional Budget Office announced that the U.S. economy is likely to lapse into another recession early next year if automatic spending cuts go into effect as planned and if no action is taken to extend a package of tax cuts first implemented nine years ago.
Not ominous enough? Well, there is the ticking time bomb now being referred to as “drachmageddon,” or the prospect that Greece will abandon — or be forced out of — the eurozone in the near future.
The prospect of another recession, combined with the fallout from a Greek exit from the eurozone, could cause chaos that would rapidly spill over to US financial markets.
Everyone’s nerves are frayed. We’re now entering the raw emotion phase.
IT IS WHAT IT IS!!!!
Got milk?
Hillbilly D
May 23rd, 2012
3:36 pm
the Congressional Budget Office announced that the U.S. economy is likely to lapse into another recession early next year
Where I live, we ain’t out of the first one yet.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
3:37 pm
Frugal Ike built the interstate highway system, Frugal Barry built………
bada bing…….
A mountain of debt!
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
3:38 pm
Hillbilly @ 3:36
Up here, we missed the recovery as well, recovery when?
Illegal Alien
May 23rd, 2012
3:43 pm
If 3 or 4 if you posters would stop, the comments would probably fit on 1 page.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
3:44 pm
Hillbilly:
I’ve witnessed four friends get laid off within the last month. They were four among many within various companies. Two of them in logistics.
Didn’t make the news.
Hillbilly D
May 23rd, 2012
3:51 pm
@@
I know a guy who just recently got laid off, in a large scale cutback, after 26 years with a national company.
saywhat?
May 23rd, 2012
4:01 pm
Illegal Alien
May 23rd, 2012
3:43 pm
“If 3 or 4 if you posters would stop, the comments would probably fit on 1 page.”
______________________________________________________________________
But then there would be nobody to laugh at.
Doug B
May 23rd, 2012
4:02 pm
No, Kyle, you don’t understand. Obama went out of his way in that quote to say that maximizing profits is mostly a good thing. But was it a good thing when PG&E contaminated an area and made lots of people very sick? It made the company more money. Would you say that was “good for communities or businesses or workers”? There are many examples where a pure profit motive caused problems beyond what is acceptable.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
4:05 pm
Gupta trial jury told of “top secret” Buffett deal
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The deal that gave Goldman Sachs Group Inc a $5-billion boost from renowned investor Warren Buffet at the height of the 2008 financial crisis was “as top secret as you could get,” a leading banker testified on Wednesday at the insider-trading trial of onetime Goldman board member Rajat Gupta.
Makes Buffett look bad, don’t it?
You crack me UP
May 23rd, 2012
4:06 pm
@@
Whats up?
Haven’t seen you on JBs blog. Where have you been?
@@
May 23rd, 2012
4:09 pm
You crack me UP:
Unfamiliar with your name. Would it be Fred?
@@
May 23rd, 2012
4:10 pm
(Reuters) – A judge on Wednesday gave prosecutors more time to assemble their case against two men arrested on terrorism-related and possession of explosives charges ahead of the NATO summit.
Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, is charged with making a false terrorist threat, and Mark Neiweem, 28, is charged with attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices in the days leading up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting on Sunday and Monday, which drew thousands of protesters to Chicago.
Will they be holding them indefinitely?
schnirt
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
4:11 pm
@Tiberuis…”It’s pretty bad when you have to school liberals on the meaning of words when they start making up their own definitions.”
I think you need a bit of comprehension work before you take it upon yourself to “school” anyone. Unless it’s a class in how to be a pompous a$$ and then my friend you are uniquely qualified.
You crack me UP
May 23rd, 2012
4:12 pm
@@
Don’t post much at all, but read comments on Jay’s blog a few times a week. Unless someone is using more than one name I pretty much figured out who the regulars are and didn’t notice you posting
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
4:13 pm
Austerity has failed in Europe. Kyle’s ridiculous article and bogus numbers cannot change that.
Romney’s business experience is irrelevant to governing the country.
You crack me UP
May 23rd, 2012
4:14 pm
Hopefully he didn’t give you the boot
East Lake Ira
May 23rd, 2012
4:14 pm
What a cesspool of racial animus, proud ignorance, and disproven economic claptrap.
Well done Kyle. Your fans are a true representation of what the GOP has become.
I feel bad for all of you.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
4:25 pm
“Austerity has failed in Europe.”
MarkV, I suggest you re-read Kyle’s article of about 2 weeks ago showing austerity in Europe wasn’t actually tried.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
4:26 pm
You crack me UP:
Hopefully he didn’t give you the boot
I’m pleased to say, HE DID!!!
At Kyle’s request, I’ll engage in no further discussion on the topic. Something about jay being indefensible.
schnirt
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
4:26 pm
“What a cesspool of racial animus,”
And yet, the ONLY posters mentioning race are the liberals on this blog. Go figure. You can read, can’t you, Ira?
“proud ignorance, and disproven economic claptrap.”
Again, what else would you liberals post? It’s all you’ve got.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
4:37 pm
Sometimes I wonder what these leaders talk about at “economic summits”. I mean like the one just held at Camp David.
From what I read, Prresident Obama said that giving out government money (stimulus) was the way to cure a sick economy.. Mz Merkle, the successful German leader, said (more or less)” Are you out of your mind?”
Then the new French president charmed everyone and gave the straight socialist line in sweet Frencais, i.e. spend, spend, spend.! Nobody really had a solution. The closing motto could have been “Money grows on trees!”
Only the German could brag. So nobody agreed with her! I don’t know whether the Greek leader had enough money to get to the conference.
So it goes. Maybe we should send a warm hospitable message like “go home and quit spending!”. We can’t though. Our president won’t stop spending either..He doesn’t have time for such things. . It would interfere with his re-election campaign.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
4:43 pm
Tiberius @4:25 pm: “MarkV, I suggest you re-read Kyle’s article of about 2 weeks ago showing austerity in Europe wasn’t actually tried.”
If you have learned to read, you would have noticed that I had referred to that article in my post @4:13 pm.
yuzeyurbrane
May 23rd, 2012
4:49 pm
Solidifying the base is not a bad short term goal since that only leaves you a few points short of winning the election. It also fires up the troops which is just what you need to push over the goal line. Romney has been doing the same thing already with his base.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
4:57 pm
Obama team trumpets new polling on gay marriage
Support for abortion is down. I wonder how many gays opt for abortion? My guess? Not many.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
5:00 pm
Obozo: And so, if your main argument for how to grow the economy is I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you’re missing what this job is about.
——————–
I guess I missed the part where Romney said that.
Obozo: Liar.
At least Romney has that skill. We’re still trying to figure out what Super Capitalist Ultra Manly Obozo’s skill is. It certainly isn’t growing an economy, lowering unemployment, reducing deficits, or moving folks off the welfare rolls.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
5:04 pm
yuzeyurbrane. 4:49
Sure, firing up your base is standard election procedure. But the president has already been elected once and should have a fine record to show us. He was elected to run the country. Remember?
The Oval office should be the headquarters for the president to work with Congress and actually be a leader. I don’t think they even “dust” the Oval office anymore. Why bother?
Is it asking too much of the president to expect him to spend most of his time on the office of the presidency he already holds?
Romney’s record and methodology has to be established in the public eye. He has a good record but has to tell Americans more about it. Therefore I expect to see him often in many ways.
Leadership is a lost art in Washington. It is not there to see.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
5:09 pm
The people who do not see leadership in the White House are people who do not want to see.
md
May 23rd, 2012
5:09 pm
“Austerity has failed in Europe.”
Ironically, Germany actually built in austerity measures back in 08 and 09……and guess which economy is doing the best?
Some of you folks don’t do enough reading……..the ones that are being forced into austerity are there for a reason…..they were unable to control themselves when it mattered. Borrowing and spending is what got them in trouble and it will be their death noll as the lenders are about to cut off funding.
Kind of ironic that a socialist group of countries is about to be brought down by it’s weakest members…….which is why socialism ultimately fails…..it takes everybody to participate and that is just a utopian dream.
That Black guy
May 23rd, 2012
5:11 pm
East Lake Ira
May 23rd, 2012
4:14 pm
What a cesspool of racial animus, – Can you point out some of this “.racial animus”? I seem to have missed it.
md
May 23rd, 2012
5:11 pm
“Romney’s business experience is irrelevant to governing the country.”
ALL experience is relevant to running a country…………
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
5:22 pm
Is leadership blaming others for your problems and failures?
Is leadership dividing the American citizenry into groups?
Is leadership bragging about doing drugs while imprisoning folks who have done the same?
Is leadership avoiding tough problems, like reducing the deficit or reforming entitlements?
Is leadership criticizing folks who are working to do things you are not?
Obozo is the worst president ever, a failure, and most certainly not a leader.
He’s at best a petulant putz.
Dusty
May 23rd, 2012
5:33 pm
MarkV
My imagination is not so gifted as to see leadership in the WhiteHouse.
You can see leadership even when it is not there. I think that is called blind loyalty. .
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
5:34 pm
If you think Obozo is a leader, then you are to be pitied because you’ve never been fortunate enough to have worked with or for a great leader.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
5:38 pm
LBB, well said!
Dusty, you fail to see positive leadership. Oblama does exhibit leadership however. He is leading us all to the poor house.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
5:40 pm
MarkV, referring to, and actually understanding what was written, are two very different things.
Which is why I suggest you re-read the article until you do understand that any statement claiming austerity failed in Europe is moronic at best.
VBC
May 23rd, 2012
5:43 pm
An economy cannot expant without profits.
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
5:56 pm
Mittens “Mucho Pasos” Romney is a reckless, private equity, cutthroat, vulture capitalist… Any attempts to compare Romney’s experience as a venture capitalist with being President of the United States are oxymorons that are mutually exclusive… Apples and oranges… If Mittens against all the odds, somehow became President, he would sell off all of America’s assets and demand a 33 1/3 % fee for his services… Mitt Romney is the C.O.B. of vulture capitalism and he sit on the top rung of the ladder… Romney spew fecal matter with reckless abandon… As we all know, fecal matter always slide down hill…
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:01 pm
Dusty @5:33 pm: “My imagination is not so gifted as to see leadership in the WhiteHouse.”
I think that is called blind partisanship.
Martin Williams
May 23rd, 2012
6:05 pm
You right Kyle because Obama wants to learn more about how private equity create jobs and how being a head of a private equity firm qualifies you to be the leader of the United States. As a leader of a private equity firm your first priority is to make money/profit for the company and the United States government is NOT a company and CANNOT make profit. Kyle, name me a government in this world that is making profit a every fiscal year and will walk from Georgia to Texas on my beer feet. To make it even easier for you Kyle, name me a profitable State in the United States and I’ll do the same thing.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:05 pm
Tiberius @5:40 pm: “MarkV, referring to, and actually understanding what was written, are two very different things.”
Understanding what was written is easy. Accepting the bogus numbers and ridiculous conclusions is easy for some ignorants.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
6:06 pm
MarkV
I agree, it takes blind partisanship to find leadership at the WH.
You crack me UP
May 23rd, 2012
6:09 pm
“Which is why I suggest you re-read the article until you do understand that any statement claiming austerity failed in Europe is moronic at best.”
Actually it would depend on which measures were taken in each different country, how long they lasted have lasted, etc.
Granted it is all under the EU umbrella, but a blanket statement either way is “moronic at best”.
Probably mixed results
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 23rd, 2012
6:14 pm
“Obama has accepted $92,270 in his last two campaigns from employees of Bain Capital.”
Why, I’ll bet he lost sleep at night.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:16 pm
It is a great pity that the people in Europe do not read AJC. They would stop protesting and danced in the streets when they learned from Kyle that there was no austerity, that the spending cuts were just figments of their imagination. And all the politicians on both sides of the spectrum could stop their discussions about whether austerity was and is the right course of action, when they learned the same- they have been talking for months and years about something that did not exist – just ask Kyle!
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:16 pm
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
5:09 pm
The people who do not see leadership in the White House are people who do not want to see
Thanks for the laugh jerk. I just sprayed a rum and coke all over my laptop screen. Leadership? I’ve watched this guy blame blame blame, then can’t even produce a budget worth pi$$ing on even by his own party. His claim to fame is ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden. Wow. What a tough choice. President O’moeba will get drubbed by the centrists who see the real issues, not the Chris Matthews leg hump fest.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:19 pm
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:16 pm
It is a great pity that the people in Europe do not read AJC. They would stop protesting and danced in the streets when they learned from Kyle that there was no austerity, that the spending cuts were just figments of their imagination.
So the way to grow an economy is deficit spending and entitlements that can’t be sustained. Check Greece, Spain and California. I’ll bet all of you liberals have parents that wish that they left the load that produced you on a crusty sock under the bed.
md
May 23rd, 2012
6:21 pm
“As a leader of a private equity firm your first priority is to make money/profit for the company and the United States government is NOT a company and CANNOT make profit. ”
Except the US gov’t NEEDS private equity to make profit or NEITHER can survive.
The private sector pays for the whole enchilada…..what part of that do you folks on the left not understand…..
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:22 pm
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers @6:19 pm
Why do you refer my post when you do not respond to it?
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:24 pm
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
5:56 pm
Mittens “Mucho Pasos” Romney is a reckless, private equity, cutthroat, vulture capitalist…
Hey at least he’s held a job in the private sector. I don’t think that wonderboy could even run a library.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:25 pm
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers @6:16 pm
You should stick to cleaning your sprayed rum and coke. It would make more sense than you writing.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:28 pm
I want to hear 1 lib in the world come out and say that not having a balanced budget or fiscal responsibility carries no weight, but funding unsustainable deficits in social programs is a better way to run an economy.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:30 pm
Come on MarkV, if you are so damn smart why don’t you tell me how Greece and Spain are going to get their economies rolling by raising taxes to give benefits to 20 percent unemployment rates. Who is going to pay more taxes??
md
May 23rd, 2012
6:34 pm
I’d like to hear the answer to that one too…..the left throws out all this crap about austerity, but has no clue when it comes to a solution……..who exactly are they going to borrow from to support their spending??
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:35 pm
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers @ 6:30 pm
I am smart enough to know that you are unable to understand the point of a post, and instead you dispute ridiculous assertions nobody has made.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:39 pm
Here is a liberal model of why they think Europe is so great, and what they want for our country.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57439913/brown-seeks-business-support-for-tax-hike-proposal/
Businesses are fleeing California in droves because of too high taxes already, and nobody wants entitlements reigned in. So what the libs probably will want soon is a punishing exit tax from any company that pulls their business out of this dump.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
May 23rd, 2012
6:42 pm
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:35 pm
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers @ 6:30 pm
I am smart enough to know that you are unable to understand the point of a post, and instead you dispute ridiculous assertions nobody has made.
Nice tap dance bud, try and save face, but skirt any discussion on a solution for Greece, Spain or Cali…because you can’t accept that governments should only have a finite money to p!$$ away…
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:53 pm
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers @6:42 pm:
“Nice tap dance bud, try and save face, but skirt any discussion on a solution for Greece, Spain or Cali…”
Can you give me a single rational reason why I should discuss with you a solution for Greece, Spain or Cali…?
“because you can’t accept that governments should only have a finite money to p!$$ away…”
Did you dream about what I cannot accept?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
6:55 pm
MarkV isn’t smart enough to realize that cutting the planned increases in spending aren’t considered actual cuts in the real world.
Nor are they considered “austerity”.
JDW
May 23rd, 2012
6:57 pm
@Fresh…”I want to hear 1 lib in the world come out and say that not having a balanced budget or fiscal responsibility”
Actually that was Cheney’s line. However,with the current crop of Republicans he is looking a bit liberal.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
6:59 pm
Tiberius@ 6:55 pm: “MarkV isn’t smart enough to realize that cutting the planned increases in spending aren’t considered actual cuts in the real world.”
Another one who does not understand an argument and instead makes up things to have something to write about.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
7:00 pm
“As a leader of a private equity firm your first priority is to make money/profit for the company and the United States government is NOT a company and CANNOT make profit. ”
Martin Williams, I’d settle for breaking even right now.
And btw, many sates have balanced budget amendments which require them to not run deficits. Why can’t our Federal government at least do that?
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
7:00 pm
Hillbilly D
For what this is worth, I thought it a slap at white working class people, but they are about all that is left to be insulted without repercussions.
News tonight was talking about Oblamer being unable to get the Scot/Irish descendant working class in KY, AR, and WVA to buy into his policies, hence their votes for none of the above in the Dem primary. They dubbed this the “Hillybilly Firewall”, an area Oblamer could not penetrate. First time I had heard that expression.
If that expression was turned around to describe those to whom Romney can not seem to get through to, it would be roundly shouted down. Guess it is open season on Hillbillies.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
7:02 pm
“Another one who does not understand an argument”
You would have to first make an actual argument, MarkV, which of course you never do.
Running away when caught posting stupidity is much more your style.
md
May 23rd, 2012
7:07 pm
“And btw, many sates have balanced budget amendments which require them to not run deficits. Why can’t our Federal government at least do that?”
I’d settle for striving to do that………vs continually presenting budgets with trillion dollar deficits.
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
7:14 pm
Mittens Romney, olympic organizer, Bain Capital head cheese… Romney and the vultures at Bain Capital sit on tree limbs and search for companies in trouble… When Bain capital spotted one, they swooped in, snatched up the company in a hostile takeover, laid off all the workers , cut off their health insurance and pensions… Bain Capital reneged on the companies pensions for retiries.. Bain capital sold off all the companies’ assets and collected huge profits for themselves… Mitt Romney was the failed Governor of a small State… Romney cut taxes on the rich, the economy went into tailspin, unemployment soared… Romney begin cutting and slashing state services.. The reason Mitt Romney did not run for re-election as Governor of Mass. was because his chances of getting re-elected was slim to none…
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
7:16 pm
Ideology is the work of idiots… Republicans are committed idealists…
md
May 23rd, 2012
7:16 pm
“Romney and the vultures at Bain Capital sit on tree limbs and search for companies in trouble…”
Must explain how they started Staples from scratch……along with Sports Authority………
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
7:20 pm
Tiberius @7:02 pm
As usual, you cover your failure of understanding the argument by insults. Typical for an arrogant bully you are
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
7:26 pm
ODD OWL, you might wish to consult the REAL record at Bain Capital while Romney was at the head. I know it will take using what little brain cells you still have working, but here’s a hint: They were successful in adding or saving jobs and increasing profits in 70% of all engagements.
Not even remotely your misguided scenario, but facts and perspective don’t lie.
Now to Massachusetts. I suspect you have never set foot in that state, or if you have, you haven’t ever paid attention when you did (I lived there and still have family there). Massachusetts is a blue state. A heavily blue state. The entrenchment of agencies and regulations which hinder businesses runs deep in Massachusetts. The legislature was over 90% hard-core Democrats in the House, and 95% in the Senate. He could only get a few things passed that he thought would spur job growth, but there was no way he would ever get comprehensive reforms instituted in Massachusetts with every corrupt Speaker (and yes, the last 3 have all been indicted and two have been convicted) protecting patronage jobs. That he was able to reduce tax rates and offset them with user fees to keep revenues near existing levels was a minor miracle, and shifted the revenue burden to the people who actually used the services.
All-in-all, he had mixed reviews on effectiveness as Governor, but given the hand he was dealt, he didn’t do so badly.
And he balanced his budget each and every year.
That is the REAL Romney record,
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
7:28 pm
Oooooh, I’m a bully!
Can I clip your hair please?
You’re now MaryV sweetheart.
md
May 23rd, 2012
7:29 pm
As for vulture capitalism…..one may want to look into the number of GM bondholders (that got screwed) that were retired employees……..it never seems to make the news.
Real Athens
May 23rd, 2012
7:38 pm
The sitting president knows less than “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s 30-something conservative” columnist about running the most powerful country in the world? Or a campaign?
GImme a break.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
7:54 pm
ODD OWL sure got quiet in a hurry when facts were presented . . . .
snoqualmiefalls
May 23rd, 2012
8:16 pm
Sorry Tibby…. not your son and probably older than you.
As for deflection lets discuss Rev.Wright a very instructive lesson in defamation and deflection, something I notice cons are all about. BTW I’m moving to a Red State, so I guess you could say I will be at home… a Blue dot in the Red Sea.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
8:20 pm
snoqualmiefalls, you’ve never, ever read a post I’ve made about Rev. Wright, nor will you ever.
I suggest you stick to the actual issue at hand.
@@
May 23rd, 2012
8:26 pm
Oh my!
In so many words, another AJC Blog columnist has posed the question. To which party do blacks owe their freedoms/successes/present standing????
ew
If only he could see the racism within the question.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
8:31 pm
It’s a sad state of affairs when folks hate others simply for being more successful and hardworking.
I guess it gives them something to do while they wait for their EBT card to get topped off.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
May 23rd, 2012
8:32 pm
Love the bolded (yet hidden) racial code-word in your post, @@
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
8:40 pm
another AJC Blog columnist has posed the question. To which party do blacks owe their freedoms/successes/present standing?
——————–
Typical libtard–can’t fathom that real success doesn’t come from government, much less one political party or another.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
8:49 pm
@@
You out did yourself with the bolding. That is cool!!
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
8:50 pm
Do you “owe” someone who accepts you as equal???
elnuestros
May 23rd, 2012
8:51 pm
Kyle should be SO happy that he has such intelligent defenders.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
9:06 pm
Just curious. Why do big-hearted libtards allow these private capital groups to come in and buy these distressed companies just to “maximize profits”? Why don’t the libtards pay the owners what their outfits are really worth, and then do “the right thing for working people” and save their jobs, and accept a slightly lower profit than the private equity firms would take?
Libtards: Do-nothing hypocrites.
Rafe Hollister
May 23rd, 2012
9:25 pm
LBB
Libs only want to invest your money, spend your money, tax your money, and give your money to their causes. Most charities would have to go out of business if they had to only spend liberals money.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
9:28 pm
Rafe, it’s no accident that Obozo and the Democrats want to eliminate the deduction for charitable contributions–such contributions and the charities they support reduce the need for government, and, therefore, Democrats.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
9:42 pm
Funny–some of the same idiots decrying Bain “maximizing profits” are also trumpeting GM’s $7.6 billion profit last year.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:47 pm
Anyone know of the outcome at the EuroTrash smutpit As I understand, France and Italy were gonna gang up on Germany in a attempt to force from them more “bailout the lazier EuroTrash”.
This EuroZipper economy could unravel completely. Can you say Recession Part II? And oh, since ObaManure spent us into oblivion the last go round, there is no more to go round.
Aye-chee-wah-wah!
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
9:50 pm
Fear not, iggy. Angela Merkel of Germany smacked down both Obozo and the Eurotrash arguing for bigger government, more debt, and less fiscal responsibility. And since Germany is one of the few reasonably responsible Eurotrashzone governments, they hold the purse strings, and no Obozo-style economic idiocy will be taking place there.
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
9:50 pm
@ Tiberius 7:54 post…. Wise people learn more from fools, than fools learn from wise people… Bookman is a patient Man… I”m sure he had a very good reason for banning you…
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:53 pm
This is fun…
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47520557
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
9:59 pm
Hope you are correct, LBB.
Maybe after Merkel stomps out the EuroTrash fires she can visit the Grand PooBah of the USA, step into the squared circle and give him a few lessons on how to behave like a man instead of a sissyBoy.
Then stuff an apple in Bidens mouth and serve him up for dessert.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
10:02 pm
I understand that Merkel and Obozo wear the same kind of jeans.
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
10:02 pm
The unemployment rate would be around 5% if it weren’t for the Romney led Republicans filibustering, obstructing, blocking, delaying and scuttling Democrat’s economic legislations in the Congress… When are Mean Mitch McConnell, Herr Jon Kyl, Johnny “one note” Boehner and Pretty Boy Eric Canter going to introduce a JOBS bill before Congress…. The Republicans need to go to work creating Jobs and raising taxes on the rich so they can pay down that massive $11 trillion dollars debt that the Bush/CheneyRomney Regime dumped at the doorstep of President Obama and the Democrats ??? Romney Republicans ===> Bush/Cheney on steroids…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
10:05 pm
An excellent read:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304707604577422083169648646.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
“The Greek government has been practicing a particularly aggressive form of antigrowth austerity. While the private sector shrank in 2011, Greece’s government grew to 49.7% of GDP from 49.6% in 2010…The reality is that Greece’s government is imposing too much austerity on others and not enough on itself. The U.S. is making the same mistake.”
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
10:09 pm
The Republicans need to go to work creating Jobs
——————
Unemployment is down from 9.8% to 8.1% since Americans voted overwhelmingly for Republicans in 2010, Einstein.
Want more jobs? Join with Americans to finish the job we started in November 2010.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:20 pm
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
10:02 pm
E-sckowse me. I believe the libtards had an across the board majority and frittered it away. Aww…so sad. Dont say I told ya so.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:24 pm
“The unemployment rate would be around 5% if…”
LOL. I see desparation has set in or maybe the drinks are taking effect.
AmVet
May 23rd, 2012
10:24 pm
,i>Lil’ Barry: As indicated in the rules, I put up with a lot of name-calling toward public officials, but “Scumbag Obozo” and “Idiot Klown Obozo” are well and truly beyond the pale.
Looks like the serially banned one is working hard on adding one more forum to his list.
Hysterical…
Progressive Humanist
May 23rd, 2012
10:25 pm
All you right wing stooges may want to take a look at this electoral map that is run by a conservative analyst: http://www.electionprojection.com/2012elections/president12.php
Romney doesn’t have a shot. 100% of the people in Kentucky and Arkansas or Mississippi or Utah can vote for Romney, and the popular vote can end up 51.5% to 49.5%, but Romney can’t win because he won’t be able to get to 270 electoral votes.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
May 23rd, 2012
10:27 pm
“Serially banned”? What are you talking about?
Judging by your presence here, it’s apparent Kyle has no rule against the serially stupid.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:34 pm
PH. Good point, however, its a long way to November.
Bullet County
May 23rd, 2012
10:36 pm
Kyle, you’re so sure about what POTUS “doesn’t understand”; but, I don’t see any specifics about the great success of Romney businesses in your article. After all, this is the Governor who was 47th (behind 46 other Governors) in job creation when he was at the Mass. helm. I’m certan that you remember what Newton Leroy had to say about Romney’s job de-construction abilities when Newton had your full support to be leader of this nation.
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:37 pm
“Scumbag Obozo” and “Idiot Klown Obozo”
LOL! But I prefen ObaManure,
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:42 pm
“47th (behind 46 other Governors) in job creation when he was at the Mass. helm”
Wouldnt it be interesting to see ObaManures Academic records. But OH DARN….he had them sealed. I would hate to jump to conclusions but methinks Barry wasnt qute the stellar student.
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
10:49 pm
Odd Owl – you are certainly one odd bird. I hope you are paid up on your health insurance because I seriously think you should go get a CT scan. Things are not working inside your skull the way they should.
MarkV
May 23rd, 2012
10:54 pm
iggy @10:42 pm
Comparing performance as governor with school records – only someone who has manure on brain would suggest that.
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
10:55 pm
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/under-obama-30-worst-months-employment-past-25-years_645771.html
Here’s the REAL unemployment rates
iggy
May 23rd, 2012
10:57 pm
MarkZero. Not really. No one goes away the same loser as they were as when they came in. As a parting gift we have for you a can of Turtlewax car polish. Thanks for playing…*POOT*
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
10:59 pm
Romney was 47th in job creation when he was Mass. governor. Where did Obama rank in job creation on any list anywhere? Do tell…
ODD OWL
May 23rd, 2012
11:01 pm
@ DAVETV 1049 PM post….Dave is attempting to project his shortcomings onto me… Scape goating, blaming others and Projecting are Republican trait characteristics… Ignorance is the Temple of the presumptous…
DAVETV
May 23rd, 2012
11:16 pm
No Odd, I’m truly concerned that there is something wrong with you. Since everything you type is 180 degrees from reality, I fear you may be close to having a stroke. Do you smell burnt feathers?
The Kid
May 23rd, 2012
11:51 pm
What is a Conservative Republican? Someone who looks in the mirror and lies to him/herslf over and over until they beleive their own lies. That’s what so many of you people portray…; The Emperor Without Clothes. Have fun loonies.
Right
May 23rd, 2012
11:56 pm
LOL…this political assessment from the dude who voted for Newt..LOL. Sir, you have no credibility left…or right.
greg
May 24th, 2012
1:03 am
I see the union THUGS were showing their A$$E$ in South Carolina. Union mentality !!!!!!!!!!!
@@
May 24th, 2012
6:42 am
One positive note on Kyle & myself, who voted for Newt. We weren’t running with the herd.
bu2
May 24th, 2012
1:57 pm
Since Obama doesn’t understand economics, doesn’t understand why we are in a recession, doesn’t have a clue how to get out of it and doesn’t understand the job of the Presidency, why should his campaign be any different?