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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBiden: Romney’s Bain experience ‘no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/biden-romney-bain-experience-no-more-qualifies-you-to-be-president-than-being-a-plumber/2012/05/22/gIQAQf8riU_blog.htmlBiden: Romneys Bain experience no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber
Posted by Felicia Sonmez at 10:03 PM ET, 05/22/2012 TheWashingtonPost
Vice President Biden on Tuesday weighed in on the ongoing debate over Mitt Romneys tenure at Bain Capital, arguing at a New Hampshire campaign event that the presumptive GOP nominees investment-firm background no more qualifies him to serve as president than would experience working as a plumber.
Your job as president is to promote the common good, he said, comparing the job of a president to that of a private equity mogul. That doesnt mean that private equity guys are bad guys; theyre not. But that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber!
Biden, who spoke to a crowd of over 450 supporters and students at Keene State College, called the private-equity business itself legitimate, but pushed the administrations argument that its imperative of wealth creation for investors doesnt translate to the skill set of a national leader.
Folks, making money for your investors, as Romney did very well, is not the presidents job, he said. The president has a different job.
politicasista
(14,128 posts)Good one, Mr. Vice President.
Ned_Devine
(3,146 posts)...and the working class
LiberalFighter
(51,301 posts)wouldn't last a day as a plumber or any other working class job. Especially in a factory on an assembly line. Romney would more than likely lose a foot in the conveyor belt.
bayareaboy
(793 posts)If it is in his mouth!
snacker
(3,619 posts)he tells it like it is.
Soooo wish he would come to Wisconsin to help us out with this recall.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Eat your heart out Joe the Plumber!
monmouth
(21,078 posts)provis99
(13,062 posts)Lech Walesa was a blue-collar shipyard worker. I'm tired of our politicians being millionaire lawyers and businessmen.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)I've been reading alot about Obama during his college years and from what I've read the guy struggled. Obama came from a working class family and had to use scholarships to help get him his education. From what I read about his years at Columbia, he was living is a pretty crappy apartment that had little heat so he spent most of his time at the library where at least it was warm.
Obama has struggled so he understands (pretty much) how the rest of us are struggling (he's not perfect). Romney isn't even on the same planet as the rest of us in regards to struggling.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)got a little tight during his college years, he just sold some stock. OMFG, I can't believe Romney has anything more than about 2-3% support nationally. What the fuck is wrong with Americans?
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)The reality of these voters are just as distorted as Romney's.
Point in case, I know this young adult who is very anti-obama/pro-anything GOP. The kid is pretty darn smart, and like many kids will struggle to pay for her college education. Along with that there are health issues that will always put this person in the 'pre-existing' category. Also this person is one of the most progressive minded people I know when it comes to minorities and LGBT. On paper this should be a Democrat.
But a grandparent who has for years bitched about Taxes and how their life sucks because of them as made this kid a right-winger voting-wise. Total disassociation between what is best to be successful in life (affordable healthcare & education) and what is perceived as the problem (taxes).
The person is a good kid and I just choose not to talk about politcs and fortunately the kid isn't big into politics unless someone brings it up.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)A Ripple of Hope: When Courage and Conscience Collide
June 10, 2008
by Robyn O'Brien
I was raised on capitalism and the Wall Street Journal. As a child, my family celebrated the birth of Reaganomics the way one would have celebrated the birth of a child. There was prosperity to be had by all if only we believed. My father, like so many of his era, fully supported deregulation and the notion of trickle down economics. If we loosen the regulatory purse strings that government tightly controls, we will all prosper. The system works.
In our house, the Reagans had an almost royal status to watch them dance, with Nancy in her red dress, gave me the feeling, as a child, that I was watching some magnificent combination of Frank Sinatra and a foreign prince with his graceful companion on his arm.
I trusted my political values would serve me well I was loyal, patriotic and supported the system.
And then one of my children got sick. With a blood condition that no one could pronounce and a pediatric mandate requiring immediate enrollment at a Children's Hospital. And I awoke.
Suddenly, everywhere I turned, there were sick children. Children with diabetes, children with cancer, children with obesity, children with asthma and children with allergies. What had happened?
As headlines in the paper warned me of environmental dangers, I began to pay attention. What was in the food? Wasn't organics a left-leaning thing? And what about the plastics and the baby bottles and the vaccines? Should I worry? Doesn't our system protect us from these dangers?
And without realizing it, an internal battle had silently begun.
I lay awake at night as I tried to reconcile the loyalty I had to my father with the loyalty I had to my children. Had a generation of grandfathers failed to recognize the health risks associated with capitalism's profits, unintentionally jeopardizing the well being of their grandchildren?
I had been raised to support the system, to believe in it, to never question it, and certainly to never speak out. Activism was something that "radicals" did, certainly not conservative soccer moms.
But I couldn't shake the internal dialogue. And armed with an MBA in finance and my four children, I began to investigate the expanding role that corporations had taken in the system in which I was raised to believe. And I was stunned.
There were insecticidal toxins engineered into crops to increase profitability for the world's largest agrichemical corporation a company whose former employees included Donald Rumsfeld and Clarence Thomas. There were petroleum based chemicals in my children's toys and shampoos that were a product of an oil corporation that had recruited me in business school. How had this happened? Had we forsaken our physical health for financial wealth?
As I struggled with the responsibility that I felt for betraying my own children, I realized that it was now my responsibility to act. But the internal battle raged on as the call from my conscience collided with the familiar comfort of conformity and I was paralyzed.
But with sick children, paralysis was not an option.
I realized that I had to find the courage, on behalf of my children and others, to speak out against the very system in which I was raised.
And I reluctantly stepped forward.
With the words of another crusader in hand, I found my voice: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls." (Robert F. Kennedy).
It is with that hope, and holding the hands of my four children, that I took a stand.
Our world is changing. Our children's voices are not being heard; there is no "show of hands" to gauge their reactions to the impact that our environment is having on them.
It is our turn to engage, to help our fathers recreate the world that their grandchildren deserve. We must not be daunted by the enormity of the task at hand, nor fear political "activism". For the sake of our children, it is our political responsibility.
If you take just one step forward, it might send forth that tiny ripple of hope that will touch your daughter's life years later or your son's health in ways you might never foresee.
If we dare to dream that it is possible to affect this change for our children, we will be inspired by hope and find the courage and capacity to act. Together.
Robyns analysis is a startling revelation of the corruption of our food supply and our failure to protect two of our countrys most valuable assets, our children and our environment. Her message of courage, tenacity and hope is a beacon of light in our toxic world."
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robyn recently addressed a crowd of 600 at TEDx Austin and received a standing ovation for her presentation, "Patriotism on a Plate" as seen in the VIDEO:
More: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1949482
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)This is hugely political although couched in anemic language. (Forceful leaders opposing big money tend to get clobbered in my observation.)
Remembering that 'WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR,' as articulated famously during a presidential race where the winning candidate campaigned on the correct side of these issues (as corroborated by stump speech videos) is a clue, as is, 'YES, WE CAN!'
Generation Rx: The Changing Landscape of Childhood
May 22, 2012 10:26 am Posted by Robyn O'Brien
Childhood appears to be under siege.
From the escalating rates of childhood cancers, to the increasing diagnoses for conditions like autism and allergies, the landscape of childhood has changed, earning our children the title Generation Rx.
And this is changing the face of American families and our economy. We already spend 17 cents of every dollar on health care, managing disease. The pharmaceutical companies cant keep up with demand, and now there are shortages for drugs used to treat cancers and ADHD.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15. The journal Pediatrics has reported that 15% of American girls are expected to begin puberty by the age of 7 (with the number closer to 25% for African American girls) and a growing number of American children struggle with obesity. On top of that, the rate for having food allergies is 59% higher for obese children, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting a 265% increase in hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions. And while not all of those hospitalizations are for our children, what is becoming increasingly obvious is that the health of our children is under siege.
But more often than not, the solution is not found in the medicine cabinet, but in the kitchen.
And as scientific evidence continues to mount, courageously presented by doctors like Mark Hyman, MD, in his groundbreaking book, The Blood Sugar Solution, and pediatric specialists like Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. Alan Greene, about the role that diet and nutrition plays in the health of our children, parents are beginning to take notice.
And as we introduce new foods that are nutrient-dense (meaning full of vitamins and minerals) and try to reduce our loved ones exposure to the foods that are nutrient-void (packing mostly artificial ingredients that have been synthetically engineered in laboratories), we are realizing that we have the power to affect remarkable change in the health of our children and families, so that together, we can stem this tide of children flowing into pediatric hospitals being built across the country.
Because while our children may only represent 30 percent of the population, they are 100 percent of our future. And if spending on health care and disease management is viewed as a leading economic indicator, we need to stem this tide before it becomes a tsunami, for the sake of our children, our families, our economy and our country.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)LiberalFighter
(51,301 posts)Because of his Mormon faith they believe each has their own planet to rule. He must be getting a head start on his afterlife. If I understand it right.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)fishwax
(29,150 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)If by some miracle I won the lottery and went from being a bum to a multimillionaire I'd become a job creator overnight. Wouldn't I?
treestar
(82,383 posts)The best possible experience for the Presidency, since it is a small version of the same job. You'd think the right wing would carp on that. Though it is strange that Rmoney did not get a second term.
yellowcanine
(35,704 posts)He would very likely have lost so chose to focus on the 2008 presidential campaign instead. The seat was easily won by a Democrat after Romney left the Mass. Republican Party in shambles.
Thrill
(19,178 posts)Thats why you never hear him talk about his time as Governor
yellowcanine
(35,704 posts)That myth should have been put to rest with George W. Bush.
Beacool
(30,254 posts)of a big state. I don't want to see him become president, but we can't pretend that he doesn't have any executive experience.
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)Yes he pushed through RMoneycare which he now denounces
But his state was 47th in job creation at a time when the only states lower than Massachusetts were ones that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
This in a state that has significant financial services, high-tech, bio-tech and export-driven industries.
Massachusetts has weathered the current downturn better than most due to those diverse and 21st century industries.
Beacool
(30,254 posts)I'm just pointing out that our side can't portray him as some inexperienced rube.
Thrill
(19,178 posts)Which is why he never talks about his time as Governor
demgrrrll
(3,590 posts)The author left out a very important part of his remarks.
Ned_Devine
(3,146 posts)...I wonder why the author left that out
joanbarnes
(1,724 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)bayareaboy
(793 posts)Plumbers have to remember to make sure that discharge needs to run downhill!