Romney Rips Obama's Lack of Experience

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 17, 2012
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          Speaking to disgruntled workers in Weatherly, Penn., former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continued his battleground state blitzkrieg, telling voters that President Obama means well but is in over his head.  Pounding Obama on economy, Romney hopes to convince voters that he has the necessary experience and skills to cure the nation’s anemic economy.  Without specifying what he’d do differently, Romney hammered away at Barack’s lack of experience.  Pulling a page out of the Hillary Rodham Clinton 2008 playbook when she ran for president, Romney insisted Barack’s inexperience hampers the U.S. economy. Mitt has no answer for why the Dow Jones Industrial average has risen 70% to its Friday’s close of 12,767 since Barack took office.  Mitt doesn’t talk about the 4.27 million jobs added since March 2010, many of which in the thriving U.S. auto industry.

            Voters in battleground states need to pay attention, especially in Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Illinois, to the fact that Barack’s Feb. 17, 2009 $787 bailout helped rescue Detroit and Wall Street, certainly the nation’s biggest banks.  Judging by his stump speeches, had Romney been president he would have let Detroit and the big banks go under.  Funny how Romney expressed no objection to former President George W. Bush’s Oct. 3, 2008 $700 billion bailout bill, helping rescue major insurance companies and financial institutions.  In the pit of the 2007-08 economic meltdown, former Federal Reserve Board President Alan Greenspan called the financial collapse the worst event since the Great Depression.  Greenspan warned that economic recovery could take years, possibly decades.  Yet the GOP tried to hang the mess on Obama the day he took office Jan. 20, 2009.

            Romney’s new tactic indicates that he somehow, with his leveraged buyout background with Bain Capital, would turn the economy around more quickly.  “I know the president wants to talk about the economy little,” said Romney.  “But he doesn’t want to talk about the economy like I want to talk about the economy,” referring to his constant put-downs and criticism.  Romney never says exactly what he’d do differently, other than subscribing to GOP Party boss Grover Norquist’s “no tax pledge.”  Even conservative members of his own Party, like Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) have questioned cutting off potential revenues streams to the government, especially ending the Bush tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.  Romney operates under the old Reagan idea that tax cuts lead to a more jobs and a booming economy, with the added taxes eventually balancing budgets.

            Romney knows that Reagan cut taxes never balanced the budget as he once promised.  Federal budget deficits quadrupled under Reagan.  Bush’s June 7, 2001 tax cuts lowered marginal tax rates to the lowest level in modern U.S. history.  Two years later, Bush signed the historic Medicare Prescription Drug Bill into law Dec. 8, 2003, nine short months after starting the costly Iraq War.  When you consider the nation was already spending $100 billion a year on the Afghan War, another $50 billion for Medicare Part D, is it any wonder budget deficits have gone through the roof, though down recently because of improved employment?  Romney rips Obama for a lack of experience yet doesn’t say what he’d do differently as president.  If you extrapolate from his Bain Capital days and his allegiance to Norquist’s “no tax pledge,” he can only slash government jobs to balance the budget.

            In case Romney forgets, Barack spent 8 years in the Illinois State Senate before becoming the U.S. senator in 2005.  While Barack hasn’t been a governor, he has seven more years more elective office experience than Romney, who spent only four years as Massachusetts governor.  Attributing all the current U.S. economic woes to Obama is laughable.  A Gallup Poll released June 14 indicated that 68% of respondents continue to blame today’s economic problems on Bush.  That doesn’t jibe with Romney and right wing talk show pundits laying the blame squarely on Obama.  Romney blasted Obama for saying the private sector is “doing fine,” something Barack’s paid dearly for in the press.  Obama knows there’s much work to be done but he also knows things could be much worse.  All economic recoveries have glitches when it comes to adding jobs and balancing budgets.

            No political party has a monopoly on the stock market.  Since Barack took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rocketed upward from around 8,000 to its Friday close of 12, 767.  As a former leveraged buyout expert at Bain Capital, Romney knows that a rising stock market gives companies the cash needed to add jobs.  Neither Barack nor Mitt has anything to do with problems in the Eurozone that have kept the U.S. stock market from even more gains.  Between now and November, Obama’s fortunes seem tied to Wall Street, giving the best barometer of future economic recovery.  If Greece votes to stay on the euro Sunday, June 17, Obama—and the U.S. economy—will get a shot in the arm.  If Greece bails out of the euro, all bets are off with the U.S. economy, handing Romney an outsider’s advantage heading to Election Day.  Voters need more optimism and job security heading into November.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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