Mitt Romney's candidacy

WhoWee

I didn't realize your link - FreakOutNation - was an approved source on PF? I'll hold comments until Evo makes a call.

phoenix:\\

Wow, lol. Here is another link to the source that is credible:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...res-ar-252458/

turbo

Romney polled 39% in Maine caucuses and Paul was second at 36%.

russ_watters

No, thats what "inflation" is!

ThomasT

Inflation refers to price increases over time. My question was about a possible erosion of buying power. If the rate of income increase has kept pace with or exceeded inflation, then buying power hasn't been eroded. If incomes haven't kept pace with inflation, then buying power has been eroded.

According to the calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) the buying power of the bottom 60% is about the same today as it was in 1967. But it depends on the numbers in the price index. So, I consider it an open question. Anyway, I already conceded that erosion of buying power wrt the bottom 60% isn't something that the administration needs to be overly concerned with.

ThomasT

The incidence of drug usage seems to be less wrt recipients of temporary cash assistance than wrt the population at large.

Romney saying that he favors drug testing cash welfare recipients is just more pandering rhetoric, imo.

phoenix:\\

What do we judge him by then? That is if we cannot judge him on rhetoric that is meant to pander to his base, then what else is there to judge him by? His record, his wants, etc...? As far as it being "rhetoric pandering", that sort of policy is in direct conflict with his base of limiting the government. My dirty pants are clean...

WhoWee

Unlike President Obama in the last election - Romney does have executive level leadership experience - 25 years in business, he saved the Olympics, and he served as Governor. Harry Reid and the Senate hasn't passed a budget in over 1,000 days and the last budget Predident Obama sent to Congress (I'll be gentle) didn't get many votes.

If possible, could you please provide your definition of "rhetoric pandering" - I want to apply it to the other threads?

Jasongreat

Let me get this right, he wants to search people with no probable cause, only because they are recieving benefits from the government? Where will it end, suppossedly we all benefit from government, should we all expect a visit from a drug tester? I wonder what the point of an in/un before alienable is, if one can be alienated from it? If you dont want people to use government money to buy drugs, you dont take away their rights, you take away the money. There is no inalienable right to government handouts. One other thing, it is easy to pass a wiz quiz, a test would only cost us more and solve nothing. Government money already pays for drugs at a far higher scale for everything from boners, to smoking cessation.

The Republican belief, that we need to take away peoples freedom of choice in order to make them more free, is about as absurd as, we need to abandon the free market system inorder to save the free market system, imo.

SixNein

Everyone is in the middle of the road in their own eyes. As for me, I suppose I'm a secular humanist. And I'm using humanism in the artistic sense of a focus on humanity. In general, there really is no label I can identify with because I'm essentially a loner in politics. Conservatives generally call me liberal, and liberals generally call me conservative.

I have to be very careful here, but I'm an atheist. And I think politics is a sort of religion. People root for republicans and democrats as if they are at a ball game. Overall, our system of government makes it very difficult to assign blame. And I believe very few people really watch government closely enough to make a stab at assigning blame. In general, people vote based upon some kind of ideology instead of evidenced based thinking and reasoning.

At any rate, on the topic of op, I believe Mitt Romney will govern very similar to Obama.

phoenix:\\

The comparison between Obama 3.3 years ago and Mitt Romney is irrelevant. We have to compare the two in the present. I never viewed the Olympics as something worth saving and is really irrelevant and useless to progression, but that is just my opinion on the matter. 25 years in business? Doesn't matter as "business" is different from politics even if you believe they are alike, they aren't. His experience as governor is bad (not good) though, the 3 years he proclaimed himself to be a moderate, but now, in that CPAC video that was posted he says he wasn't a moderate? Lie much? Yes, just more of that rhetoric pandering the ol' Mitt does.

Definition, or at least why I use "rhetoric pandering": He over-exaggerates his positions, consistently flip-flops, and outright lies just to appease his base. That, to me, is a prime example of rhetoric pandering.

Politics is a new sport in today's world. Almost like chess in a way where everyone participates in the game to beat the current king and replace him with a new king. Nothing changes but it still keeps us in our boxes and seeing as I've reached the limit on conspiracy-based, vitriolic (as people think it but I don't believe they are grating) words, I won't go down that road here.

WhoWee

I think you might've posted in the wrong place - this thread is about Romney.

phoenix:\\

Lol, you sly fox, but just watch that CPAC video and compare it to his campaign for governor. I will be the first to tell you, you will be floored from laughter. It is like he regressed even though his governorship regressed as he went along and his approval rating plummeted close to Nixon even with the Watergate incident.

russ_watters

There is no such legal quandry: welfare is voluntary.

Jimmy Snyder

You lost me on that one. Are you saying that search without probable cause is OK because welfare is voluntary?

AlephZero

Search without probable cause in a particular context is certainly OK.

If not, airport security procedures or workplace random drug tests are equally "not OK".

Jimmy Snyder

And the voluntary nature of the context is the criterion used to decide if the search is OK?