MITT ROMNEY

My heart goes out to Mitt Romney.  The effort he put in , in his failed run for the presidency, was incredible.  He went through a brutal primary campaign in which he felt compelled to flip flop on socially radical stands (e.g. on abortion, global warming, and other issues), then he had to shift gears and flip flop again in which to woo "ordinary" voters in the Presidential election.  I think what he was saying was, "Just elect me as President and I'll fix it."

Romney was a good student in law school and outstanding in simultaneously pursuing an MBA, saved the Winter Olympics (and gave his salary to charity),  and got passed an incredible health plan as Governor of Massachusetts (Where he refused the salary.).  He gave away his inheritance to BYU for the George W. Romney School of Business Management.  He did an outstanding job in his missionary work to France.  He tithed to the Mormon Church in which he also became an official, and was very successful at making money in business.  Early in his tenure at Bain Capital he started out in venture capital (i.e., creating startups) and was very successful at that, even creating quite a few jobs, but switched to private equity where making money was easier.  The guy had seemingly never failed at anything in his life until he was defeated at the age of 47 by popular Senator Ted Kennedy in a Senate bid, but he was undeterred in pursuing a political career.  It is worth noting that, though very wealthy, he gave up his pursuit of money to enter politics.  In doing so he never came close to such financial leaders as Bill Gates and the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet.  In fact he has never even entered the top 100 fortunes, so far.

It became clear, however, that Romney's background made him out of touch with the populace and led to such gaffs as his talk to supporters about he wouldn't get the votes of the "dependent" 47% who don't pay income taxes,* insulting many workers who vote Republican.  After he was defeated for President, he has given another talk to supporters claiming that he lost because of extreme gifts given by Democrats to the less well off.*  He obviously is not introspective.  He not only promised to return $713 billion to Medicare that he wrongly claimed was taken from benefits, but he overlooked all the income tax gifts given to the wealthy by the government (e.g. 15% income tax rate on qualified dividends, 15% on long-term capital gains, low taxes on "carried interest," no income taxes on Municipal bonds, among other more complex gifts) that permit him to pay less than a 15% income tax rate in many years rather than the 35% he would have paid without loop holes.  He even promised to extend tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney; http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/07/republican-presidential-candidates-for.html; and http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/12/tthe-republican-primaries.html

* http://www.marketplace.org/topics/elections/campaign-trail/numbers-behind-mitt-romneys-47-comment; http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mitt-romney-obama-gifts-20121115,0,2129448.story