Pants on fire?

Mitt Romney is at it again: lying, obfuscating, parsing, evading the truth. He has declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, and began (or continued) attacking President Obama.

he blamed the president for high unemployment, rising gasoline prices, falling home values and a soaring national debt.

Rising gasoline prices are products that vaunted free market the Republicans like to give so much lip service to; no president has a direct effect on them. Unemployment and falling home values are more the responsibility of that free market and corporations. No president control them. Ditto for the national debt. Yes, economic policies have an effect, but no a pervasive one.

Mr. Romney made his candidacy official at a family farm, where he invited supporters and media to a “Cookout With Mitt and Ann.” Under clear but windy skies and with tractors and hay bales as a backdrop, Mr. Romney hopes to send the message that he intends to win New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. The choice of the Bittersweet Farm for his announcement is an interesting one for Mr. Romney, who regularly argues for a smaller federal government that spends less. The rolling green hills of the farm were preserved in recent years in part with $1 million in federal money, according to a recent report in Seacoast Online.

O, Mitt. Republicans love to blame the federal government for almost everything, but never say no to federal money. A smaller federal budget would take away farm subsidies, and losing farm subsidies would make corporate farmers howl in protest.

Mr. Romney made no mention of his potential rivals. Instead, he painted a picture of a country that is in crisis. He said that he “believes in America,” but said it is suffering from the leadership of the current administration. “We look at our country and we know in our hearts that things aren’t right, and they’re not getting better,” he said.

Who doesn't believe in America? Pandering and groveling ain't gonna do it, Mitt.

Curious Donald

My opinion is that Trump is a blowhard, a publicity hound, and pathetic. But one should never underestimate the imbecility of popular opinion (look at Michelle Bachman's fund-raising prowess, and add Sarah Palin).

Trump’s overweening self-confidence is so towering, if you’ll pardon the pun, that he even makes the ego-driven politicians contemplating a presidential run look humble by comparison. But the ability of a putative billionaire to manipulate the press and lead us all around by the nose tells us a lot about running for president of the United States in the 21st century.

Didn't start with the 1960 televised debates?

It is primarily the ideology-driven Republican Party and its Supreme Court majority that has removed any semblance of fair play in what is supposed to be a democratic process and created a one dollar-one vote environment. Presumably, the GOP will rally around one candidate that all the corporations and banks and hedge fund managers can attempt to catapult into office. Maybe it will be Trump, but it might be Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee, or some other candidate willing to represent the moneyed interests in the White House.

Not to extol the purity of the Democratic party.

• Why do we have no meaningful financial reform? Why are the banks and, in many cases, the very same chief executives who created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, robbed retirees of their savings, drove homeowners out of their homes, and left millions unemployed now bigger and richer than ever?

No one has gone to jail, but plenty have lost jobs and homes.

• Why do consumers, who patently need greater legal protection against the predations of unscrupulous financial institutions, still have no Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

And why do Republicans oppose such a Bureau? They call it anti-competitive, government meddling, even socialist.

• Why does one of our major political parties – the one that is responsible for creating the biggest deficits and debts in our history – pretend it wants to rein in those deficits when all it really wants to do is reduce taxes for the rich, regardless of how high that pushes the deficit?

One can lie to some of the people all of the time.

The influence of money – particularly corporate money – has become so pervasive and brazen in our political system that we would call it rampant corruption if we observed this phenomenon in another country. Here we go by the euphemism of “campaign finance.

Precisely.

Obama and the Democrats are just as much caught up in this web of corruption as the Republicans. Not all of the billion dollars Obama will spend in getting reelected, and probably not even the bulk of it, will come from individual small donors. After all, keeping financial reform so insipid required the active participation of the administration and the Democratic majorities in Congress.

So you’re Donald Trump – you’re smart, you’re rich, you love being in the spotlight. Why not run for president, at least for a little while? You can’t buy advertising that good.

Obama and Wall Street

President Obama is in town today, bulking up his war chest with a fund-raising party at the Waldorf Astoria and a private reception for wealthy donors. The reception — which will be held at the Fifth Avenue apartment of the wife of former New Jersey governor (and ex–Goldman Sachs CEO) Jon Corzine — will be attended by about 70 thick-walleted supporters, each of whom will cough up $38,500 for the honor of kicking Obama’s reelection efforts into gear.

Pocket change, for these folks. What is the difference between campaign contributions and influence-buying?