Thursday, September 04, 2008

Romney

I ought to thank Romney for his speech last night, because it reminded me why I despise him. In part it was the sheer hypocrisy of it all. The son of a wealthy-businessman liberal Republican governor, the graduate of Harvard Law, the long time Bostonian, the liberal Republican governor of MASSACHUSETTS-- railing against East Coast Elites? Then there is the pejorative use of the term "liberal", about which Sullivan has a great post this morning. And of course, the frightening chants of USA! USA! But of any moment in the speech, the one which most completley demonstrates why I hate Romney is when he addressed energy policy. He addresses that old bugaboo known as "dependence on foreign oil" and tells us that our buying oil from overseas represents "the largest transfer of wealth in history."

Mitt makes it sounds like we are simply shipping off billions of dollars to the Middle East. He doesn't mention that we are getting something very valuable in return: oil. Obviously we value oil more than the money we use to pay for it, or else we would not make the purchase. It's called a market, Mitt. Adam Smith, the invisible hand, capitalism? Now, if Huckabee said the same thing I could forgive him, 'cause you don't get the sense that Huck cares much for economics. Romney, however, is a gifted venture capitalist. He gets it. Which means he's just playing politics. Whatever problems I have with Palin, I still would prefer her at the bottom of the ticket.

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