The sociopath as politician - Mitt Romney
Let's face it. Mitt Romney can change any position that he has stated at any time depending on what benefit it has to him. That's classic investment banker behavior. As smart as they might be, as helpful as they might be if you understand what they are doing, and as ingratiating as they might be, a rule among a minority of smart business types, most notably in my former career learned from an academic and investor named Bennett Stewart, no one but a fool would ever trust them.
With that forewarning they can be valuable and lots of fun in a way. Get to fly on the Concorde in the years before it lives its final life, fly corporate jets all over Europe, stay at hotels that Princess Diana stayed in, not a bad incentive to stay with these smart and generally well informed folks on many subjects. They have resources, but they have a risk/reward for spending them that is not apparent to many. Mittens knows all of this.
Mitt may be a fine family man, he may be a great supporter of his religious tradition, he may be many things, but one could not help but believe that he has a finely honed learned tradition of being a complete chameleon if they followed his political aspirations over the last five years. We like his loosening of his approach to immigration and possibly even healthcare in recent weeks even if it has no relationship to what he has said for the previous four years, when he made many horrid statements on these issues.
Unfortunately, he is a sociopath who is completely without any base of real beliefs other than "do what you need to do to win." How can he be viewed as trustworthy to anyone, especially to world leaders, who in our globalized world have certainly watched his behavior, one in which he has little experience.
We realize that there is no perfect choice, no 2008 obvious one. Our President has a mixed record, but he inherited one that was less than mixed in the middle of an economic crisis that was far more serious than most of the electorate might still realize. He and his predecessor were in sync on how to address this crisis. The challenge was enormous. It still is. His unrelenting attack on much of corporate America for the first three years of his presidency could well be his undoing in this election.
What a dilemma. At least one could have a reasonable idea of where Obama stands even if it's not all attractive. That could not be said about candidate Romney.
With that forewarning they can be valuable and lots of fun in a way. Get to fly on the Concorde in the years before it lives its final life, fly corporate jets all over Europe, stay at hotels that Princess Diana stayed in, not a bad incentive to stay with these smart and generally well informed folks on many subjects. They have resources, but they have a risk/reward for spending them that is not apparent to many. Mittens knows all of this.
Mitt may be a fine family man, he may be a great supporter of his religious tradition, he may be many things, but one could not help but believe that he has a finely honed learned tradition of being a complete chameleon if they followed his political aspirations over the last five years. We like his loosening of his approach to immigration and possibly even healthcare in recent weeks even if it has no relationship to what he has said for the previous four years, when he made many horrid statements on these issues.
Unfortunately, he is a sociopath who is completely without any base of real beliefs other than "do what you need to do to win." How can he be viewed as trustworthy to anyone, especially to world leaders, who in our globalized world have certainly watched his behavior, one in which he has little experience.
We realize that there is no perfect choice, no 2008 obvious one. Our President has a mixed record, but he inherited one that was less than mixed in the middle of an economic crisis that was far more serious than most of the electorate might still realize. He and his predecessor were in sync on how to address this crisis. The challenge was enormous. It still is. His unrelenting attack on much of corporate America for the first three years of his presidency could well be his undoing in this election.
What a dilemma. At least one could have a reasonable idea of where Obama stands even if it's not all attractive. That could not be said about candidate Romney.
posted by John Borden at 9:02 AM
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