I'm told that Liposuction can be painful.

Now now. That's nitpicking compared to Stockman's rough words about,

The New Economic Collapse Video: It makes uncomfortable but urgent viewing.

http://xn--cgi.ws/mM

This is a great article. Hearing the right wing serve Romney up as some model of economic excellence has been revolting. Hearing Mitt complain about debt is nauseating. He got rich creating debt for other people, by slipping in, risking little of his firm's own money, and then sucking out massive amounts from a company, before getting out and leaving a company holding a huge tab. Mitt is a debt machine.

I wouldn't even compare him to a vulture feeding off a carcass. Romney is like something from space that attaches onto a living creature and digests its organs. As the space parasite leaves, enriched with nutrients, the victim staggers forward a few steps and collapses.

This article explains one thing I always wondered about: why investment firms would lend to these LPO guys knowing they could be holding the bag after Bain, etc...got out. The answer is the occasional homerun deal where everybody on the space parasite side of the equation cleaned up before the collapse of the host. The WSJ looked at 77 deals here:

"Overall, Bain generated an impressive $2.5 billion in investor gains on $1.1 billion in investments. But 10 of Bain’s deals accounted for 75 percent of the investor profits."

That's the 10 that really paid off and made the risk worth it for Goldman Sachs, etc... In these, Bain's return was more like 175 million in profit in a few years on an investment of only 10 million. In a deal like that, Bain's investment partner who provided the initial money to make the acquisition, could unload their shares as well at the huge profit rate before the company collapsed. I see that now.

The part I disagree with is when the author says, "The larger point is that Romney’s personal experience in the nation’s financial casinos is no mark against his character or competence."

I don't buy that. This opinion is partly driven by the fact that David Stockman was in the same LBO business himself and doesn't want to be judged.

But I don't think you can act like this and say, "Well, others are doing it so it's okay." It doesn't pass the mirror test - looking yourself in the mirror and saying, "I just destroyed a bunch of people's lives and got rich doing it."

Mitt Romney is a despicable human being. The fact that he can thrive doing this and then try and tell us he did something right, is a scary example of how horrible financial people can be.

I can't even think of this in human terms. This is like a space parasite coming down to feed on humanity.

Absolutely Bill!
And then there's the son Tag who along with his wife engaged in a legal agreement to have a child through suragacy. The agreement included a provision for abortion if things went badly with baby or mother.
So I guess abortion is still OK for them under some circumstances. But not for anyone else?!
What a bunch of hypocrits! The whole fam-damly!

Speaking of lying sacks of stuff, herrrrre's Little Lord Paulson!

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20121015/UPDATE/121015029/1001

Saw something funny the other day -- a car festooned with Ron Paul stickers . . . and a Timbers logo! You can say a lot bad about Ron Paul but at least he wouldn't vote to spend public money on a billionaire's playpen for his precious little snowflake son.

Stockman has made a living out of trashing Reagan and republicans for decades. One must consider the source. With respect to the almost insane posting of mr McDonald, such hatred iis a great example of the abyss that many folks have fallen into during this campaign. I believe president obama is a terrible president but certainly don't hate him or his family. What is next, some idiot bashing Romney's grandkids? When politics overrides common sense, one should consider finding new ways to pass the time.

Portland Native
So don't you think the surrogate mother would not have signed a legal agreement that didn't allow abortion if HER life was at risk? Is she supposed to agree to the surrogacy with no protection for herself?
Look somewhere else for your dirt. Tag isn't even running for anything.

My, the way Romney's firm outperformed the market was his home runs more than made up for the losses -- kind of the way the Yankees won 40 AL Pennants and 27 World Series. Thank you for the insight David. You'll get a dozen CNBC appearances out of this article -- a few on MSNBC as well. Say hi to Ed, Chris and Rachael, why don't you. Of course, we will all be better off with someone who knows how to loot and lose. We can all see how well that works.

Romney is like derivatives. Destructive side bets that make a few rich but add nothing of value to the economy.

L.O. Resident--IF Tag has the same opinion as his dad Mitt--abortion wrong ALWAYS--then yes, the surrogate mother, as well as every other women, is supposed to risk their life bringing a fetus to and through birth. If Tag and wife believe abortion is wrong ALWAYS, then signing a contract with that clause in it IS hypocritical. They're being a party to something they don't believe in, something they don't believe in not only just for themselves, but for EVERY woman.

One must consider the source.

Or you could go with, I don't know, facts.

I share Bill's antipathy for the lie of the Romney campaign, if not for the man himself. He hasn't been through some transformative experience in this campaign that has made him a candidate of the people. He's still a man of the rich, who believes serving the rich will somehow make life better for the rest of you, the 48% to 99% he does not write off as completely inconsequential. Some people want that perspective in their President. That's their choice. Just don't try to sell the guy as a born again compassionate savior of the working class with some special private job creating experience.
His Wall Street career was fueled by unbridled and guilt free greed at the expense of people and jobs on Main Street. He has no real experience running a company of his own that actually created goods or services people could use, and the jobs necessary to provide those goods or services. Romney was simply a shrewd and greedy Wall Street financial opportunist who used debt and leverage to accumulate capital for rich people, at the expense of working class people. That's Stockton's point, that this experience does not make him more qualified to run the U.S. economy, and I agree. I just wish the Obama campaign could make the case as well as Stockton does.

GA Seldes: Merritt Paulson, doing for sports what Whitley Strieber's "Deliverance: The Next Generation" alien rape fantasies did for SETI.

Why do the democrats always go after the children of the Republican candidates? Bash them for policy ideas, bash them for stance on social issues, bash them for pandering to the religious right - that's all fair game.

Leave the family out of it - it just makes you look petty and petulant.

According to Roll Call, of the top ten US Senators and Representatives in wealth, 8 are democrats, 2 republicans. Over 98% of all of our past presidents were more than millionaires, accounting for inflation. And most were previously very involved in the business side of life. We've had very few populous Presidents. And I wouldn't even think of placing Obama in that category.

Fanatics are, unfortunately, fanatics. They probably have serious health problems and anger management issues. I find it hard to believe that such folks have a life. C'mon, live a little. The world isn't going to end regardless of who is elected president or mayor or whatever. Chicken Little was wrong. The sky isn't about to fall. The demonization of political opponents often fails miserably and I will bet the majority of voters who will decide this election are sick of negative ads. I can just imagine some of the posters on this forum crying out for "Elizabeth" when they watch the debates. Make sure you take those aspirin.

Stockman: "The larger point is that Romney's personal experience in the nation's finance casinos is no mark against his character or competence."

Whew, sure took him long enough to finally reach a conclusion.

Bain Capital got 173% in returns to "investors" for about 10 years. I'm sure that was all legal - even if Bernie Madoff got busted for providing returns of around 10%.

And Bain's list of "investors"? Lots of solid citizens from Central America where the money had to be "filtered" through Panama first.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/19/nation/la-na-bain-creation-20120719

Ive experienced Obama for the last 4 years, the removal of opportunity and equity from the economy, the increased regulation, etc. I'm going to give my vote to Romney. EVERYTHING highlighted in Stockmans' article looks to make Romney much more qualified to be President.