Mitt Romney the GOP placeholder

Think about this: Rep. Paul Ryan wasn't ever old enough to vote for President Reagan, either time.

Presidents I have witnessed during my time...IKE, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush41, Clinton, Bush43, and Obama...all have one thing in common. None of them were heads of a major successful corporation. If Romney wins in 2012, he will be the first exception. It will be interesting to see if Romney can deliver for the country the net prosperity he delivered for his corporations. If he does, he will become a historical figure. If he fails, next 10 presidents will come from long time political career types.

I am not just looking for prosperity, I am also hoping for removing the debt burden on future generations. That has never been done yet. While we had great prosperity during Reagan, the government budgets tripled. While we had many jobs created during Clinton, credit goes to Newt and GOP congress for restraining spending.

all i got to say is “Romney-Bots, get off of our site, you vermin!”

I am not just looking for prosperity, I am also hoping for removing the debt burden on future generations.

It's too late for that based on simple demographics or as Rep. Ryan likes to say, "The math." Too many retirees and not enough young people.

Right now our future is Romney and the GOPe. They've made that clear. The grassroots will not drive the agenda.

OTOH, I don't think they realize just how much the left hates them even if they are the same group of people.

Romney needs to quadruple his security, even his wife is being threatened because she can put two sentences together without a teleprompter and not hurt herself.

The left is an insane socialist clown posse and if they can't have power, they will want blood.

Many of us aren’t....but....boy howdy did we take good notes.

And Romney - for all of his shortcomings - has already done something greater than Reagan - for all of his greatness. Romney has appointed a worthy, conservative successor.

“None of them were heads of a major successful corporation. If Romney wins in 2012, he will be the first exception. It will be interesting to see if Romney can deliver for the country the net prosperity he delivered for his corporations. If he does, he will become a historical figure. If he fails, next 10 presidents will come from long time political career types.”

C.E.O.’s of corporations don’t have to deal with a Congress to get their policies implemented. They don’t face bureaucratic monstrosities such as the EPA that will try to subvert their policies. Nor do they head entities in which roughly 45-48% of the “employees” are totally opposed to every move they try to make.

If Mr. Romney truly believes he’s going to get America back on track as he did with the Olympics, he’s got another think coming…

Nevertheless, I wish him well at this endeavor.

Don’t you know? Objective discussion is not allowed on this site. That is what some seem to think

I had a hard time figuring out who this, person, was directing his comments against since he somehow managed to keep the To: off of his post.

“all i got to say is “Romney-Bots, get off of our site, you vermin!””

There is a fine line between working against what you revile and becoming your enemy isn’t there?

“I am not just looking for prosperity, I am also hoping for removing the debt burden on future generations. That has never been done yet.”

Nor will it be done under the Romney administration. An oceanfull of wishful words may be spoken on the subject, but no changes of substance — that is to say, nothing which fundamentally changes the way the system operates, rather than just tinkering around the edges — will be made…..

…. Until the system has collapsed or has reached the point where it becomes obvious to EVERYONE (including the ‘rats) that collapse is inevitable and imminent.

We are “not there yet”, nor will we be there for another decade or two, perhaps even longer.

There are some very short memories around here. Don’t you even remember back to 2005, when G.W. Bush, fresh from his second term victory, broached the subject of making fundamental changes to Social Security? How did that fare for the Pubbies? How many changes resulted from his efforts? How much Republican capital was wasted in that effort? Aside: this was was of the factors leading to the humiliation of the G.O.P. in the 2006 elections.

Fearless prediction (and I know it rubs against the grain of many in this forum):
The entitlement system will never be fixed “from the top down” unless and until it has collapsed; until the “checks stop coming” or shortly before so; until the population at large demands that changes are necessary and must be made.

Yes, of course it is Congress which must re-write the laws. But even the most committed conservatives in Congress will get nowhere with this issue until there arises a broad consensus amongst Americans that the system must be changed. That consensus doesn’t exist today, and it may never exist — until collapse overtakes us (Aside: after collapse, consensus will no longer matter much. What will matter is riot control.)

Imagine, if you will, a loaded 110-car coal train rolling down the mountain. It has air brakes, which can stop the train, and each car has a hand brake that is the rough equivalent of a parking brake on your car. The train screams down the tracks at increasing speed, and if the air brakes aren’t applied soon, the momentum of the train will increase so much that not even the air brakes will have the power to stop or slow it, and a crash will become inevitable. (As a career railroad engineman, something one learns is that with a loaded freight train, above a certain speed even an emergency application can’t produce enough “braking horsepower” to overcome the weight and speed of the train.)

With that in mind, know that the “hand that controls the air” is that of the American people at large, not that of the members of Congress. The efforts of Paul Ryan and others like him amount to little more than individual brakemen trying to apply hand brakes to slow the train. But without the hand (and will) of more than majority of the American people applying the air, the brakes can’t slow the train.

Slowing the entitlement train is probably outside the realm of “political possibilities”, because the rewards (for both the entitlees and the politicians who provide the benefits) are too enticing. It may literally have to crash first, before the tracks can be repaired and the train re-railed.

yes, the debt is a very tough problem to solve. Look at Greece & Spain as examples of too much debt.

However I am 110% sure with 4 more years of Obama, we are finished. I am willing to give R+R a chance. It is better than certain doom.