Romney

As Mitt Romneycontinued to build his delegate count for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night with five more primary victories, his new campaign slogan proclaimed: "A better America begins tonight. " The message seemed to announce that the November election was all over but the shouting, although he has yet to be nominated by a party still demonstrably cool to him, let alone anointed by the American voters as their next president. Actually, all that was beginning that night in Mr. Romney's upbeat speech in Manchester, N.H., the site of his first 2012 primary success, was the dead period that lies ahead until the Republican convention officially designates him, as matters now stand, as the GOP nominee.

After three months of licking the wounds of his defeat, Mitt Romney surfaced this week on Fox News with a somewhat unexpected rationale for his disappointing election outcome. What cost him the White House, he seemed to say, was what he loved to call and still calls "Obamacare. " Throughout the campaign, Mr. Romney hammered away at President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. He depicted it as a hugely unpopular power grab that he would "repeal and replace" when he got to the Oval Office, with the grateful relief and support of the American public.

I was disappointed by Wednesday's presidential debate ("Battle is joined over jobs, taxes," Oct. 4). Something happened to make President Obama shut down. Maybe it was the anniversary comment. The debate reminded me of Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare. " In all the fanfare over who said what about how to fix the economy - should it be from the middle class up or from the 1 percent down? - the bottom line is clear: Romney portrayed the hare in his bragging, boisterous performance.

The column about a theoretical Mitt Romney presidency by Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. contains two serious flaws ("What if? Life under President Romney," Jan. 27). First, Mr. Ehrlich writes "... there would be a fiscal plan to cut $4 trillion of federal spending over the next four years. " In fact, not only did Mr. Romney never present any plan to help balance the budget, he proposed increasing the already bloated defense budget by $2 trillion over the next 10 years. Second, Mr. Romney's foreign policy was a disaster waiting to happen.

While Mitt Romney continues to depend on the notion that he is the Republican best equipped to beat President Barack Obama in November, another question of perception hovers over him. Do voters like the guy? It's a question that clings to him as he struggles against his natural reserve and buttoned-down style, which no number of tie-less appearances can change and turn him into one of the boys. He reminds one of the old gag about the fastidious Spiro Agnew -- that his wife would roll him out each morning on a skateboard, with every hair in place.

While The Sun has ably covered the upcoming election, I feel you should better highlight some important context. Four years ago, America faced its greatest economic crisis in generations. Employment was plummeting, and a second Great Depression appeared possible. Since taking office, President Barack Obama has worked tirelessly to stabilize the economy and rebuild America's middle-class. This hasn't always been easy, but we are moving in the right direction. We now have steady job growth, and recovery is underway.

With Mitt Romney now confident enough of the Republican nomination that he can turn his focus against President Barack Obama, the guessing game on selection of a running mate is already in full swing. It's a matter that warrants more serious consideration than determining who will give him the best chance of being elected in November. All presidential nominees pay lip service to the ideal of choosing the individual who is best qualified to assume the presidency if fate were to so dictate.

Although Mitt Romney is demanding an apology from the Obama campaign for spreading "lies" about him, it would seem that he should be the one apologizing. If he was still chairman, CEO, and president of Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002, as his own filings with the SEC indicate, then he is the one lying about leaving the company in 1999, not President Obama. If Mr. Romney is telling the truth about when he left the company, then he was lying to the SEC. And that is a felony for which he could face jail time in addition to owing an apology to the American people.

Can Mitt Romney possibly recover? Pundits and pollsters are beginning to doubt it. A survey conducted between Sept. 12 and Sept. 16 by the Pew Research Center -- before the "47 percent of Americans are victims" video came to light -- showed President Barack Obama ahead of Mr. Romney 51 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. That's the biggest margin in the September survey prior to a presidential election since Bill Clinton led Bob Dole, 50 percent to 38 percent, in 1996. And, remember, this poll was done before America watched Mr. Romney belittle almost half the nation.

Did Mitt Romney destroy or create jobs while running Bain Capital? It's a nonsense question. Romney wasn't paid to create jobs. He was paid to create value for investors. By all accounts he did it very well, attempting and often succeeding in increasing the ratio of revenue to expenses — and thus profits — in businesses ranging from credit reports to pizza to mattresses. The better question is whether the kind of productivity and profit growth that Romney promoted and exemplifies have been good for ordinary Americans.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has outdone himself ("What if? Life under President Romney," Jan. 27). With his predictions of what would have transpired under President Mitt Romney, he has produced his funniest column yet. However, he seems to have omitted a few things that would have happened under the bumbling Mr. Romney. To begin with, Mr. Ehrlich failed to mention Mr. Romney's plan to turn health care planning over to Prevention Magazine which, while resulting in an increase in subscriptions, did not lower the cost of health care.

Well, well, Mr. Ehrlich has a fantasy about how the economy takes off if Romney had only won ("What might have been: Life under President Romney," Jan. 27). He needn't dream of what might happen, just go back to 2001 and fast forward through eight years of history. There were even some ginormous tax cuts for the wealthy. Wow our economy must have been in the stratosphere by the end of the story, right? V. Moore, Catonsville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

News flash: President Romney and congressional leaders met today to review the terms of the recently concluded fiscal cliff deal wherein the Bush tax cuts were extended by four years, the corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35 percent to 25 percent, and the capital gains tax rate for middle class taxpayers was lowered to 10 percent. The leaders returned to Washington to encouraging news from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 800 points since the fiscal deal was announced.

The Republican Party has been doing a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing since the presidential election. Half the conservative columnists and bloggers say the GOP lost because it overemphasized social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. The other half says the party didn't emphasize them enough. And everyone denounces Project ORCA, the campaign's attempt to turn out voters via technology. But I've got a suggestion for cutting short the GOP angst: Sarah Palin for president in 2016.

Defeated presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who helped do himself in with his closed-door characterization of nearly half of all Americans as content to live off federal handouts, wasted no time doubling down on the theory. He did so in a conference call with donors saying President Barack Obama won re-election essentially by bestowing "gifts" to minority voters, the young and women through his policies and campaign promises. Mr. Romney cited the extended benefits of the Affordable Care Act, free contraceptives and forgiveness of interest on college loans essentially as bribes that helped put Mr. Obama over the top. That is how he explained the overwhelming support these voters gave the president, including more than 70 percent among Hispanic and Asians and 94 percent from fellow blacks.

Thomas Schaller, in his column, "Older, wealthier get plenty of free stuff" (Nov. 14), is right on the mark when he points out that the real receivers of undeserved entitlements in our society are not the truly needy, that is, the poor, sick, elderly and handicapped who depend on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and other social programs to survive as has been charged by many talk show blabbers and right wing pundits. The myth that many of these are malingerers who cheat and game the system is not supported by the facts.

As an 85-year-old widowed senior, the current political scene is deeply disturbing to me. Why do the candidates have to make such nasty, personal remarks about each other? Where is the respect candidates once had for each other? There was a time when rivals could have different opinions without the disrespect shown today. I respect both candidates as individuals, but I differ on my opinion of each. I agree with the Republicans that there are too many entitlements, but just doing away with all of them would be to put Romney's "47 percent" of the population in real jeopardy.

My father has worked at the same furniture manufacturing company for over 30 years. He has worked his way up from an entry level position to the senior director of manufacturing. The company has grown and shrunk many times along the way. As projects were secured, they had the flexibility to hire up to 100 people to get the job done. This is how a business should work, right? Well, this is no longer an option. Currently, his company employs 55 people. Under the regulations of Obamacare effective in January, a heavy fine will have to be paid by companies with over 50 employees that do not provide health insurance.

As someone who supported Mitt Romney for president, the result of this election was a tough pill to swallow. Unlike the final days of the 2008 election, when John McCain voters began to accept that the ideas of hope and change would ultimately rule the day, many people on both ends of the political spectrum believed that Mr. Romney could emerge victorious or at least win the popular vote. Some Republicans blame Mr. Romney's defeat on his lack of a clear message. Others attribute it to President Barack Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy, which distracted voters from the sluggish economy and the unanswered questions surrounding the Sept.

President Obama constantly speaks of rebuilding America's middle class, but by expanding welfare, Social Security and other entitlement programs he is actually building a lower class that is dependent on the Democratic Party for its survival. This type of candy-man politics was very effective in securing inner-city votes for Mr. Obama and other Democratic candidates in the November election. During the campaign season I heard the different battle cries many times: "Don't vote for Romney, he is going to cut food stamps!"