Mitt Romney

Let's talk about Mitt Romney. It was either that or stool samples, so I chose the easier course. How much does it matter if Romney has offshore accounts in terms of his role as President? Honestly, not very much. It matters about as much as it does whether Bill Clinton enjoys his interns or not, which is to say, though neither is particularly laudable (I realize we're talking about two separate type incidents, but I'm just going merrily along) it doesn't have any particular effect on how he'd govern our country. Dirty liberals can't have it both ways. Now, if you want to cite him as hypocritical or out of touch, maybe, but I have a hard time believing that anyone who runs for President these days is not hypocritical or out of touch. They are, after all, human beings.

That's why it doesn't particularly bother me when I heard about Romney's time at Bain. It's essentially a non-sequiter that's being treated as though it isn't. I doubt that Romney, despite what he might have done at Bain, is going to set about shipping a bunch of American jobs overseas. He's not an idiot, just out of touch. I mean, being a politician is about changing positions. For instance, The New Yorker had an interesting article about the origins of the individual mandate. It turns out it came from the Republican party. In fact, it was presented as an alternative to Clinton's health care plan. The point is, it went from being a Republican initiative to a sign that our constitution was eroding. That doesn't seem possible, but it is in the world of politics.

Anyhow, the only thing to take away from Romney's time at Bain or his tax return is that he's very similar to other folks who have made a lot of money. It certainly doesn't make him unfit to be president. By the same token we could haul Obama in for not closing guantanamo bay or not pushing through something even more useful than the individual mandate.I'm not here to fire bomb the guy; it just seems to me that the whole conversation is one big non-issue that is turning into a large issue because politics, complicated as they are behind the scenes, are almost incredibly banal on the national scene. We don't want our politicians to say anything remotely interesting, or controversial, because this is the sort of thing that happens. Thus, we'll all get to hear about how great America is from each of the candidates for the next few months along with some quality personal attacks. The main point is, I need to get back to watching Game of Thrones. At least the politics there end with some real excitement.