The Good Post Gallery

[Brittain33]

Yes, Obama's attacks on Romney's record at Bain are unfair. No, the fact that a company Bain Capital invested in outsourced jobs isn't especially important.

But none of this would hold water as much if Mitt Romney weren't basing his entire campaign for president on the idea that he "knows how to create jobs" - something which sounds even weirder when GOP doctrine suggests government can't create jobs.

It's worth remembering that the bulk of Mitt Romney's career was spent not as a private equity partner, but as a management consultant. It's being overly generous to place management consulting in the rough-and-tumble part of the business world. Management consultants are people who are paid a fee to give advice to companies; in that sense, it's really more like being a doctor or a lawyer than being an entrepreneur or a manager.

Romney's private equity record likewise says nothing about his ability to create jobs. It says much about his ability to generate profits. But anyone with a decent understanding of management knows that one of the quickest ways to increase a firm's profits is to eliminate jobs. No one starts a business to create jobs; they start a business to generate a return on their investment. Any jobs created are incidental. There shouldn't be anything wrong with this; I don't think "You make too much money" is a very salient insult. Liberals don't understand that. But conservatives need to dispense with the starry-eyed vision of people who sit in offices and say "Let's see how many jobs I can create today."

Mitt Romney was a good management consultant and a good private equity investor. But he hasn't done a good job of explaining how any of that entails he will be a good president. If anything, his management consulting experience would seem like a more logical jumping off point - many of the organizational problems companies experience have analogues in government agencies. Someone who knows how to make a major corporation run more efficiently could probably do the same for a Cabinet-level agency. But there will probably be layoffs involved.

[Brittain33]

Beet's posts in this thread are f'ing fantastic: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=156803.msg3373766#new

Beet is really shining strong in that thread. Of course, it goes right over Politico's head.

and it begs the question, why does Beet feel the necessity to jostle with an obviously inferior interlocutor. 

Because if there is no response to people like krazen, Politico and Winfield, even if people know they're wrong, they end up dominating the group and driving out the constructive and well-informed discussion like bad money driving out good.

[Brittain33]

Yes, excellent post if you ignore some of the glaring factual inaccuracies! When pointed out to him, he didn't bother to respond. Instead, he just posted a link to anothe article that bashed Santorum. Looks like someone knows they were wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. Won't be the last.

I let it go because I made my point and your responses weren't particularly relevant - that you don't support Berlusconi as much as you used to, and that Santorum wasn't a "bully" in this case. Both objections seemed pretty pointless and would just lead to back-and-forth with no conclusion, but I can close the loop now.

1. Berlusconi's been a corrupt bully for as long as he's been in office, not just since Bunga Bunga came out, but if you don't support him, then sub in Chris Christie and Tommy Thompson, they fit the bill as well.

2. It's your opinion he's not being much of a bully in this case. That's debatable, but whatever, he's a bully in his normal behavior, it's why he was such an effective vessel for Republican rage in 2012 until he started making truly stupid comments about college educations, it's why Kerrey made that comment that you disagree with so much, and picking on the disabled who were supporting this treaty isn't a profile in courage. You can disagree, but I disagree, and there's no glaring factual error.

3. But I got Rod Grams wrong! I mixed up my Dem 1994 revenge cycles. True true.

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That's a nice comparison that does me more favor than I deserve. Memphis is a calmer guy than I am.