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Putting Romney in office insane; Lorraine D’Eramo; Beaver County Times; October 21, 2012. At the time of this writing, this letter appeared only in the print edition of the BCT. I apologize for any transcription errors
In previous letters, Ms. D’Eramo said Sarah Palin wasn’t “a decent mother to her special-needs son and other four children” and “agree[d] with everything letter writer Lonzie Cox Jr. wrote in his May 26 letter to the editor (‘Democrats must act like Democrats’).” I didn’t critique the second letter (“Democrats should emulate tea partiers,” 6/6/10) and it’s no longer on the Times website. Other letters were entitled “Put the blame where it belongs,” “Helping others is Christian to do,” “Place the blame where it belongs,” and “Don’t overlook Democrats’ good.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I agree with the letter writer who said doing the same thing over and over again is insane.”
[RWC] Warning: This letter consists entirely of name-calling and falsehoods. I don’t understand how someone can have so little respect for themselves and others that they would write letters like this.
“Putting Mitt Romney in office would be the same as putting George W. Bush back in office to destroy the country for another four years.”
[RWC] Ms. D’Eramo doesn’t tell us which policies/programs of Mr. Bush “destroy[ed] the country.” As a reminder, we’re in the current mess because of a leftist program Ms. D’Eramo likely supports.
“He is exactly like Bush, a rich, spoiled rotten rich kid.”
[RWC] Real classy. Ms. D’Eramo likely knows nothing about Messrs. Obama and Romney she didn’t get from Democrat and/or other lefty sources. Mr. Obama hardly lived a disadvantaged life as you’ll read below. Have you noticed being well-off is only a problem when it’s a Republican? When was the last time you heard a lefty complain about the wealth of Democrats like the Clintons, Corzines, Emanuels, Kennedys, Kerrys, Lewises, Obamas, Pelosis, Reids, Rockefellers, Soroses, and so on?
“He said he doesn’t care about 47 percent of us, most of whom are seniors and children with disabilities or people who have lost their jobs because of right-wing outsourcing. I think it’s clear to the 99% of us who aren’t millionaires.”
[RWC] Mr. Romney did not say “he doesn’t care about 47 percent of us ….” At a campaign fund-raiser, an audience member asked, “For the last three years, all everybody’s been told is, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.’ How are you going to do it, in two months before the elections, to convince everybody you’ve got to take care of yourself?” Here’s the Romney response to which Ms. D’Eramo referred:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. And he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican, and 48 or 4…”
The full transcript of Mr. Romney’s comments as published by Mother Jones.
“Right-wing outsourcing?” I believe Ms. D’Eramo meant “offshoring,” not “outsourcing.” Outsourcing is when a business contracts with another business to perform some functions. For example, a business may contract with a janitorial business for cleaning services instead of doing the cleaning with its own employees. In any case, it’s neither left- nor right-wing.
Why do businesses really offshore some jobs and/or buy foreign materials instead of domestic? Businesses have a fiduciary responsibility to their owners (including you, me, and pension funds). This is true even for not-for-profit businesses. Businesses make the decisions they must in order to survive and succeed. Otherwise, they close up shop and/or go into bankruptcy. Unlike the federal government, businesses can’t print money. Would we prefer businesses continue to operate in the U.S. until they (we shareholders) go bust? Let’s say you own and/or run a company with 1,000 domestic employees and despite your best efforts it’s about to go under. Let’s also say offshoring the jobs of 100 employees would save the other 900 jobs. What would you do? Let’s say your business uses steel to manufacture its products but can no longer compete using U.S.-produced steel. Would you put your 1,000 employees out of work instead of buying less expensive foreign steel, possibly resulting in a loss of jobs at the domestic steel supplier?
“President Obama has walked in our shoes. He knows what it’s like to be poor. He knows what it’s like to watch your mother die because she can’t afford medical care.”
[RWC] I don’t know about Ms. D’Eramo’s shoes, but I know Mr. Obama didn’t walk in my shoes. My brothers occasionally walked in my shoes because of hand-me-down shoes, but not Mr. Obama.
“President Obama … knows what it’s like to be poor?” Contrary to Ms. D’Eramo’s claim, Mr. Obama was never poor. Mr. Obama’s maternal grandmother (who raised him for several years) was an evil <g> bank vice president, he attended private grade and high schools, Occidental College (private), and Ivy League colleges Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Michelle Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law and she earned $316,962 and $273,618 in her final two years of full-time employment according to FactCheck.org. According to CNN, the Obamas’ net worth was between $2.8 and $11.8 million (including their $1.7 million house) as of January 2012. How many in Ms. D’Eramo’s neighborhood could have afforded to attend Mr. Obama’s $40,000-per-plate campaign-fundraising dinners hosted by George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker? Or the $35,800-per-plate dinner hosted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein? Or the $20,000-per-plate dinner hosted by Michael Jordan? There are more examples, but you get the idea. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with any of this and Mitt Romney’s campaign holds similar events. I point these things out only because Ms. D’Eramo wants us to believe Mr. Obama is something he isn’t.
As for “He knows what it’s like to watch your mother die because she can’t afford medical care,” false again. With the exception of the normal co-pays, deductibles, etc., her employer-based medical insurance paid for Ms. Dunham’s (maiden name) medical treatment.
“The president ended one senseless war and is bringing our troops home from a necessary war.”
[RWC] Regarding Iraq, it was in “wind-down” mode when President Obama took office and from there he simply followed the withdrawal agreement negotiated by the Bush administration with the Iraqis. Regarding Afghanistan and he “is bringing our troops home from a necessary war,” President Obama increased the troop level and spending in Afghanistan even though then-Sen. Obama opposed the 2007 Iraq troop surge.
“He killed bin Laden, gave us health care, lowered unemployment and the economy is improving.”
[RWC] Mr. Obama “killed bin Laden?” What relevant intelligence/military actions/policies did Mr. Obama employ that former-President George W. Bush did not?
Mr. Obama “gave us health care?” Seriously? Mr. Obama must be wealthier than I thought. If I didn’t have healthcare before Mr. Obama gave it to us, why have I been paying medical insurance premiums all these years? Does this mean I can stop paying those premiums?
Mr. Obama “lowered unemployment?” The unemployment rate was 7.8% for January 2009, the month Mr. Obama took office. The rate was 7.8% for September 2012, the first time since January 2009 it was below 8%. Further, the September 2012 data doesn’t appear to make sense.
“The economy is improving?” Based on what?
“Things are not happening as fast as any of us would like. It’s always taken longer to clean up a mess than it does to make it.
“Only the Almighty could’ve done a better job.”
[RWC] Wow! I don’t know what to say. Putting Democrats on a par with God is nothing new for Ms. D’Eramo. In “Don’t overlook Democrats’ good,” Ms. D’Eramo wrote, “Without God and the Democratic Party, I’d be in bad shape.”
“Do you really want to go back to another four years of the destruction of America?”
[RWC] Of course I don’t want Messrs. Obama and Biden and “another four years of the destruction of America.” That’s why I’m voting for Messrs. Romney and Ryan.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.