Silver lining for Mitt: he'll pay no taxes under Newt's tax plan

newt

As good as it gets: under Newt's tax plan there would be no tax on capital gains.  Under Mitt's plan people earning under $200,000 who usually don't have any capital gains won't pay any taxes on the capital gains they don't have.  Under Newt's plan Mitt will pay no taxes.  Clever that newt.

The Anti-Entitlement Strategy - Thomas Edsall - - NYTimes.com

In a December 19 editorial in USA Today Mitt Romney delivered his counter to President Obama's progressive big thematic speech in Ossawotomie, Kansas.  Romney declared the choice is between an "Entitlement Society or an Opportunity society".  Obama framed the issue as whether we care for each other or pursue radical individualism.  So the opposing candidates (it's a given the Romney gets the GOP nod) agree on what they differ about.  Romney will run on the politics of resentment against Obama and the politics of hope (a job made much harder by the protracted difficulties and relentless opposition he has faced as President).  - GWC
The Anti-Entitlement Strategy - NYTimes.com:
by Thomas B. Edsall

(Journalism professor, Columbia University)

"Romney’s goal is to persuade swing voters of the imminent moral and material danger that Obama and the Democratic party pose. Here are three more lines from the Romney op-ed.

Over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an Entitlement Society.

If we continue on this course for another four years, we may pass the point of no return. We will have created a society that contains a sizable contingent of long-term jobless, dependent on government benefits for survival.

Government dependency can only foster passivity and sloth.

This is not the Republicanism of compassionate conservatism, far from it. In recent weeks, the former Massachusetts Governor has laid down a set of markers planting himself firmly on the right – just as Obama has begun to stake out a more leftward position. In outline, we are seeing the beginning of the general election campaign.

Romney’s adoption of an anti-entitlement strategy comes at a time when he appears to be looking up from the primaries toward Election Day, which suggests that his hard-line stance will be central to his campaign against Obama and not just a temporary maneuver. We are headed toward an ideological confrontation over the next 11 months of an intensity rarely seen in American political history."

'via Blog this'

James Fallows: Perry will fade, Romney will get the nod

As I commented after the first Republican presidential debate. "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme" will sink Rick Perry. He has not missed a single chance to dig a deeper hole for himself. Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee: and he will be formidable. Especially if he picks Jon Huntsman or Mitch Daniels. - GWC

James Fallows - Authors - The Atlantic: "By the way: No one is in love with Mitt Romney, but he is moving smoothly toward being the nominee. And Rick Perry gave another reminder why he is a version of Michele Bachmann -- more executive experience, yes, but equally unready for big-time scrutiny. If anybody wants to bet on a President Rick Perry being sworn in on January 20, 2013, I'll take the action on the other side."

'via Blog this'

The Goldwater Debacle

Barry Goldwater - the intellectual godfather of today's libertarians (like Ron and Rand Paul now he opposed the civil rights act of 1964) - led the Republican Party to its worst defeat in the last 50 years.  Today his successors in the Rejection Front that is today's Republican Party are rallying to Rick Perry whose nomination would set them up for attack ads like this from 1964.  (I would not count these chickens if I were Obama.  A center-right New Englander like Romney is the likely winner here.)

Romney/Huntsman vs. Obama/Biden

If Social Security and Medicare are the third rail of American politics (touch them you die), then Rick Perry is a dead man walking.  Decrying Social Security as a fraud and a Ponzi scheme, he walked into Mitt Romney's left upppercut:

“Our nominee has to be someone who isn’t committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security,” Mr. Romney said. “I will be sure that we keep the program and make it financially secure.”

 So Romney will walk away with the Republican nomination.  Time to start looking at a nominee for Vice President  who is similarly center-right.  There is only one other grown-up in the room: John Huntsman - the Mandarin-speaking Mormon former Ambassador to China.  It will be a daunting lineup for Obama and Biden to face.

Giuliani Rips Mitt Romney On Healthcare: 'A Mandate Is A Mandate' | TPMDC

Rudy Giuliani must have picked up some of the Tea party spirit as he headed north to New Hampshire where the license plates say Live Free or Die.  He has found a new freedom: the freedom to have no health insurance. It's a remarkable reversal the Republican Party has embraced: being uninsured for illness is not a bad thing: it's a personal freedom.

Rudy Giuliani Rips Mitt Romney On Healthcare: 'A Mandate Is A Mandate' | TPMDC: "Is Rudy Giuliani running for something?

On a visit to the crucial primary state of New Hampshire, the former New York mayor took dead aim at Mitt Romney for his Massachusetts health care law, calling on him to apologize to America for inspiring President Obama's own reforms.

'[Romney] can't talk his way out of this,' Giuliani told the New Hampshire Union Leader. 'A mandate is a mandate is a mandate is a mandate is mandate. Let's get real.'
According to Giuliani, Romney has 'taken away people's freedom' with his requirement that Massachusetts residents purchase health insurance, and his failure to admit it was a mistake is damaging to the party."

Words Romney might regret: - "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributor - Let Detroit Go Bankrupt - NYTimes.com:

by Mitt Romney

October, 2008

"IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.".....

The readiness of the son of the late president of American Motors to let GM and Chrysler crater was a bold statement. But it's going to be hard to defend in Michigan if, as he hopes, Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee for President of the United States.