Five Reasons Why Mitt Romney Shouldn't Be President

Mitt Romney would make a horrible President. Why? Because he's  a socipath and an empty suit. He believes in nothing in general, and in particular he doesn't believe in America.


1. Mitt's Much-Touted Business Experience was Limited to the Systematic Destruction of America

Mitt's business experience was limited to Bain Capital, where he was tasked to acquire American companies and systematically dismantle them, looting all assets (including pension funds), and selling off the company piecemeal or declaring bankruptcy. Whenever possible he eliminated jobs or outsourced them.

After Bain became majority shareholder in Kansas City-based Worldwide Grinding Systems, 750 people lost their jobs, workers were denied health benefits and severance pay and pensions were cut, reported Reuters. The firm eventually needed a $44 million federal bailout to cover pension losses.=

The acquisition, however, was lucrative for Bain's investors--the firm invested $24.5 million and got a $58.4 million return, according to Los Angeles Times estimates.

--Johnson, 2012

That's right, Mitt's business experience consisted of tearing America apart, piece by piece. As such, he has no business experience; he has anti-business experience. He's a Bizarro version of a businessman.

As President, one wonders which states he might dismantle. I mean, do we really need North Dakota or West Virginia?

2. Mitt is a Low-Level Sociopath 

Mitt famously said he likes being able to fire people who provide services to him, but that's not what this is about. In his career at Bain Capitol he fired thousands of people-- not because they were incompetent, or bad at their job, but because it was financially expedient to get rid of them as he tore apart the companies for which they worked. He has never expressed regret about this because he has no regrets.

Firing someone is, for normal people, a gut-wrenching experience:

The actual act of firing an employee is painful and unpleasant and I've never met a single person who enjoyed conducting the actual termination. (And I've been involved in literally thousands of terminations.)

-- Lucas, 2012

The reason Mitt seems so passionless is because he doesn't experience emotion in a normal way. That's because, I'm convinced, he's a sociopath-- he feels no guilt. Not about anything. To Mitt, the human consequences of taking someone's job away has no human meaning. It's purely a financial transaction.

Now clearly, capitalism is entirely about profit, but it's not a good thing to put an emotionless automaton in charge. And clearly, Mitt is a human robot. It's why so many people feel uncomfortable about him.

It's a good thing Mitt isn't driven to kidnap, murder, and dismember young girls--for if he were he would do it without compunction, without regret.

The only emotions Mitt feels are entirely about what's good for Mitt. America doesn't  need a President who is entirely lacking in empathy.

3. Mitt is Pathologically Incapable of Telling the Truth

Mitt tells the most astonishing lies, and with a straight face.

Most recently he has claimed President Barack Obama plans to eliminate Medicare.

Of course this isn't true:

Romney's speech before the American Society of News Editors was clearly an effort to turn the tables after Obama's own speech before the group on Tuesday, in which the president strongly criticized the federal budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee. The Ryan budget would cut Medicare and convert it into a voucher program, cut food stamps and health insurance for poor children, and provide large tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. Romney recently called the budget "marvelous."  

-- Carter, 2012

Ryan's budget would, according to the Wall Street Journal, "essentially end Medicare."

What Mitt is doing here is a political slight-of-hand; in the face of a proposed GOP budget that will destroy Medicare, he claims President Obama, who had just criticized the budget, is the one who wants to destroy Medicare.

I don't think Mitt thought that one up himself; while his lips were moving, it was most likely Karl Rove pulling his strings.

The point here is that Mitt can and does tell the most shameless lies with a straight face. It's part and parcel of his sociopathy.

Romney lies about everything: his past views on abortion, the Obama-like health care bill he passed when he was Governor of Massachusetts, why he strapped his dog to the top of his car-- everything.

Wednesday afternoon, Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News and was presented with yet another piece of evidence that he has misrepresented his health care position. Romney’s current line is that he has never advocated a national version of his Massachusetts health insurance program, and certainly not the health insurance mandate.

But that was not, in fact, Romney’s position in 2007 through 2009. Will Saletan has masterfully documented how Romney reversed his position on abortion and covered up his reversals, combining a sprinkling of outright lies with a heavy dose of carefully-crafted evasions. He has used the same technique here on health care.

-- Chait, 2012

Politicians lie, to be sure, but Romney's lying is pathological and would make him a disaster as President.

4. Romney Believes in Nothing

Mitt is constantly adding to this extensive history of flip-flopping on almost every issue: health care, women's rights, immigration, global warming, firearms, TARP, the bailout of the U.S. automobile industry. He is constantly and forever saying whatever is expedient, with no regard for his actual history and certainly with no regard for the truth.

Mitt's lies about President Obama are his most egregious: Obama wants to shut down Medicare. Obama is an atheist. Obama has created no new jobs; in fact, he lost 2,000,000, while he (Mitt) created 100,000 while he was at Bain Capitol. Obama apologized to our enemies.

Mitt lies just to lie, I think:

It's a small one, but might be my favorite. During a debate in November, when moderator Wolf Blitzer introduced himself by saying that "Wolf" is really his first name, Romney greeted the audience by saying, "I'm Mitt Romney, and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name." In fact, Willard is his first name. It's a lie notable for being so mundane: Why would someone fudge their name? It's almost as if he can't control himself.

-- Schlesinger, 2012

I suspect that what underlies Mitt's problem with the truth is a man who believes in nothing. He has no values; he's a human robot who wants to be President of the United States and will do anything and everything to achieve that end.

America does not need yet another sociopathic liar as President.

5. Mitt is Clueless, and Beneath That Cluelessness is More Cluelessness

"Russia is Public Enemy #1"  Jeez, Mitt, it's not 1973.

"The trees [in Michigan] are just the right height."

Mitt Romney's campaign speech in Michigan last week wasn't just the pinnacle of butt-kissery, even by politicians' standards -- it might have even been lifted from "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."

Romney's speech -- in which the former Massachusetts governor attempted to re-establish his Michigan roots by uttering such banalities as "the trees are the right height" and "I love the lakes," spurred some Internet wisenheimer to draw comparisons to Romney's speech and Steve Carell's "Anchorman" scene in which Carell's character, Brick Tamland, attempts to curry favor by expressing his fondness for random objects he sees in the office.

--Kenneally, 2012

 Mitt is full of platitudes and empty complements. He doesn't mean them, he just says them. They're a sign of the emptiness within him.

This is scary why? Because of things like this:

In the fall of 1990, Exponent II published in its journal an unsigned essay by a married woman who, having already borne five children, had found herself some years earlier facing an unplanned sixth pregnancy. She couldn’t bear the thought of another child and was contemplating abortion. But the Mormon Church makes few exceptions to permit women to end a pregnancy. Church leaders have said that abortion can be justified in cases of rape or incest, when the health of the mother is seriously threatened, or when the fetus will surely not survive beyond birth. And even those circumstances “do not automatically justify an abortion,” according to church policy.

Then the woman’s doctors discovered she had a serious blood clot in her pelvis. She thought initially that would be her way out—of course she would have to get an abortion. But the doctors, she said, ultimately told her that, with some risk to her life, she might be able to deliver a full-term baby, whose chance of survival they put at 50 percent. One day in the hospital, her bishop—later identified as Romney, though she did not name him in the piece—paid her a visit.

He told her about his nephew who had Down syndrome and what a blessing it had turned out to be for their family. “As your bishop,” she said he told her, “my concern is with the child.” The woman wrote, “Here I—a baptized, endowed, dedicated worker, and tithe-payer in the church—lay helpless, hurt, and frightened, trying to maintain my psychological equilibrium, and his concern was for the eight-week possibility in my uterus—not for me!”

-- Kranish & Helman, 2012

 America does not need a President so inhumane as this!


Sources:

Bendavid, Naftali. (2012, 4 April). GOP budget aim: Cut $4 Trillion. Wall Street Journal.

Carter, Zach. (2012, 4 April). Mitt Romney claims President Obama will "end Medicare." Huffington Post.

Chait, Jonathan. (2012, 15 March). Romney's health care evasions: A history. New York Magazine.

Johnson, Luke. (2012, 9 January). Mitt Romney's Bain Capitol tenure comes under scrutiny as GOP candidate touts experience. Huffington Post.

Kenneally, Tim. (2012, 21 February). Mitt Romney's pandering Michigan speech get the "Anchorman" treatment. Wrap TV.

Kranish, Michael, &  Helman, Scott. (2012, February). The meaning of Mitt. Vanity Fair.

Lucas, Susanne. (2012, 10 January). Why Mitt Romney likes firing people. CBS News.

Schlesinger, Robert. (2012, 12 January). Mitt Romney's lies. U.S. News.