Mormonism is of lower mainstream acceptance than Judaism. I think independents that are left leaning would have more of a problem with it than right leaning because of general distrust of religion on the left. Hard to know about hard-right Christians. They don't seem to have much of a problem with the pedophile guy on fox.
I actually think this is a good thing in a general sense. However, the problem with Romney is that his flip flops tend to correspond to exactly what voters he's trying to appeal to, as opposed to any actual changes in philosophy. We hear this a lot, and in some cases, it may be true. But what about health care in particular makes RomneyCare suited to MA but not TX? I think Romney is the GOP's version of John Kerry. The guy that's competent and fairly reasonable, no one really hates, but no one really loves or is excited by either. But that might be good enough to get a coalition through the primaries, especially if its a big field. Like Kerry, Romney would then be relying to a large extent on a dislike of the incumbent to try to win - so that race really depends a lot on how the economy is and how Obama is perceived at the time.
The issue really is in the primaries. One of the problems Romney fell into last time was in Iowa and the south - the religious conservative base really never took to him. Of course, he had McCain on the other side taking the fiscal states like New Hampshire, which is no longer an issue.
Actually the problem with this character you're going with is that you're stuck in the group project-team world of HBS case study land. You need to actually get out there and get into the warehouse, talk to clients, the littlefolk, and the like. That's a how a true entrepreneur would approach it. Life is a lot more complicated than a deck of Powerpoint slides - primarily because there's no "CTRL-Z".
You took the words right out of my mouth! Except replace HBC case studies with legal reviews and the powerpoint slides with legal briefs or internet ownage printouts.
When you boil it down to this generic, lots of people have had success doing that (including Obama, for example). The problem with the "government as business" model is that government is NOT a business. The two types of organization do and should be run very differently. Whenever you start trying to run government like a business, bad things tend to happen - simply because the purposes are very different and thus the routes to success are very different.
Yup, purpose of business is to maximize profits. Purpose of Government is to aim to keep profit equal to zero. If Govt ever makes a profit, it should either pay off debt or reduce taxes (with former having priority).
We have a revenue problem AND a spending problem. Its the liberals who want to pretend we don't have a spending problem. Its hard to increase your revenue when you're already working two jobs at low wages while the spoiled wife at home is spending more than youre making. When your finances are a wreck, you first deal with the budget, then you look at the revenue. Pretending to believe increasing revenue is going to fix deficits is beyond ignorant.
And yet MA was ranked 47th in the nation for job creation and economic growth with Romney as gov. Not an auspicious start
The Democratic debt reduction plan is something like 70-75% spending cuts and 25-30% revenue increases. The GOP version is 100% spending cuts and 0% revenue increases. Think about your statement, and compare them to the facts. Except for the fact that it has worked in the past, on multiple occasions.
Even beyond that, government is designed to provide services equitably and treat citizens equally (in theory). For example, if Medicare was run as a business, it would try to get rid of the most needy and expensive customers because that would be efficient. The postal service would not go out to podunk, nowhere because it wouldn't make economic sense. Government is designed the opposite - it is meant to provide services to those people. You see that argument all the time with the Post Office - that UPS could do the job better. And it probably could, if it was willing to scrap the 10% of least profitable customers. But government is designed to provide service to those 10%, and that results in high costs. The Post Office isn't necessarily inefficient (though it may be) - it just has a mandate that is not compatible with the business viewpoint.
The government is not a business, but organizational behavior and efficient management is in both. Large charities for example are now hiring MBA's to run and optimize their return on investment. The return however is not a return of capital but a return based on the particular desire of the charity. This could be higher graduation rates, less afflictions of polio or any sort of measure. Understanding how large organizations work and how to manage something as diverse as the US government needs someone with the experience of managing something large with varied interests.
That's certainly true, if you are the administrator of that stuff - for example, Chief of Staff or top executive positions. However, a President doesn't really deal with any of that - he's not really involved in the actual execution or management of anything, really. A President mostly needs to understand his/her areas of expertise and how to guide larger vision type stuff. They also need to listen to the people that actually are in charge of the execution and understand what is and isn't possible. I think CEO-type experience can be helpful, but it depends on what type of CEO you were. Some aspects of a CEO can be as harmful as others can be helpful. I think Romney's background should be an asset - but mostly because he has experience in both the business AND government "CEO" worlds. How much of it is from the business world vs the government world, I'm not really sure. But in a general sense, I think being Governor is much better experience for preparing to be President than CEO is.
Palin might actually be the Democrats best ally for retaining the Presidency. As long as she is drawing attention away from Republicans actually running for president it will keep them the GOP from coalescing around one candidate while also draining resources and attention from GOP candidates.
She doesn't care about a fancy cargo-shorts wearing urban elitist such as yourself anyway, she lives in real america of jorts. And private jets.
You would think it would be something to be proud of. Mitt Romney’s Campaign Website Omits Health Care Reform Accomplishment From Bio The 695-word biography on Mitt Romney’s campaign website highlights the former governor’s business experience, his success in “salvag[ing] the 2002 Winter Olympic Games from certain disaster,” and stabilizing the state economy. But it doesn’t devote a single word to his greatest accomplishment as governor: enacting comprehensive universal health care reform in Massachusetts. The glaring omission seems to undermine Romney’s latest effort to honestly address the issue and explain his continued support for the law. As Romney himself pointed out, more than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents now have health care coverage, including 99.8 percent of children — the highest in the nation — and the state is now spending less on uncompensated care.
