Bain of Our Existence

Occupy Wall Street claimed a stunning victory this week when it was revealed that they have successfully established tent cities in the vacant spaces inside a number of Republican's heads.

Specifically, while Barack Obama is nonchalantly asking to borrow yet another $1.2 trillion, quite a few alleged conservatives are ignoring the issue entirely while attacking Mitt Romney for heartlessly making money and creating jobs (but not saving every worker's job) when he was affiliated with Bain Capital.

In a nutshell, Bain Capital looked for companies which were struggling and bought them at bargain rates. They would then try to determine what was dragging a company down and eliminate those factors in order to make the company profitable (thereby saving and creating jobs). Sometimes, a company couldn't be saved and went out of business, or workforces needed to be downsized - meaning that people lost jobs. That's capitalism...and it is heartless or it couldn't create the prosperity that eventually does create jobs.

But not to hear Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry tell it. Newt's SuperPac committee is running a video called "When Mitt Romney Came To Town" which accuses the photogenic Mormon businessman of every evil deed imaginable except pulling the gold fillings out of Jews' mouths at Auschwitz. Which has certainly helped Hope n' Change narrow the field of GOP candidates we're supporting...though we don't think Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Perry would like our newly revised line-up.

Yes, Mr. Romney was operating out of a desire to make a profit (who isn't?) and he couldn't save every job in every company that Bain worked with. But if Gingrich, Perry, and others find that standard unacceptable, what will come next? Will doctors who work for profit (hint: all of them) be deemed unacceptable if they can't save every patient? And if that did become the standard, what doctor would take on a high-risk case or bother to treat a terminal illness at all?

Clearly such a policy would be nonsense in medicine, it is nonsense in the world of business, and it would be disastrous if it were the mindset of yet another American president.

Here at Hope n' Change, we have our problems with Mitt Romney - but his willingness to cut programs that aren't working and his desire to keep an eye on the financial bottom line aren't among them. In fact, those are some of his better qualities.

Those candidates who are now attacking his record at Bain as "heartless" should take a deep breath and then look at what "governing from the heart" has done to our country: destroyed black families, created massive joblessness, ruined our schools, reduced our national security, and pushed our nation to the brink of extinction owing to unfunded (and unfundable) liabilities.

For any self-proclaimed "conservative" member of the GOP to ignore these truths while repositioning himself as a warmhearted populist is utterly unacceptable. And attempting to move ahead in the polls by damaging Romney's chances to win a general election is detestable.

The way to win this primary and the November election is to sincerely be more like Ronald Reagan. Not more like Barack "Hey, I need another trillion from the Evil Rich" Obama.

Nancy and Newt enjoy watching his attack ads together.
-

READERS (Saturday Update): If you want to read the comments "old school" style (which is much easier on the eyes), just click on the hypertext title of each day's cartoon. Magically, you'll see the cartoon and comments exactly as they used to be. If you wish to leave a comment of your own, click on the tiny "Post a Comment" link after the last comment and a pop-up window will open where you can share YOUR opinion. Thanks to Chuck for bringing this to our attention!

I'll also continue trying to make this the "default" behavior for the site (if possible) to simplify things.-

Another Define Mess

After 3 years of everything conceivable getting worse for Americans, even Barack Obama's supporters are starting to ask him what the "Hope" and "Change" he promised was supposed to be. Pressed for a definition of these vague terms, Obama has now clarified "Osama bin Laden will never again walk the face of this Earth. That’s what change is!"

OHhhhhh! Somehow when he was describing "Change" during the campaign, we assumed it would involve less brain matter spattering across walls at high velocity.

Of course, he also promised "Change" in the tone of rhetoric in Washington - and he's certainly delivered on that score, too - by making it exponentially worse. In the same speech in which he was licking Osama's blood off his alleged trigger finger, the president said that evil Republicans are putting "the very core of what this nation stands for on the line. The notion that we're all in this together, that we look out for each other."

Frankly, it strikes us as odd that the president claims "we're all in this together," while trying to incite half of the country to take up arms against the other half. Maybe we don't quite understand his definition of "looking out for each other."

And what are we to make of Obama's accusation that Republicans are against people succeeding "no matter what you look like?" Seriously, if he was any faster at whipping out the race card, he'd be dealing Blackjack in Vegas.

But at least we don't actually have anything to fear from Barack Obama's violent new definition of "Change" as killing your political enemies - right?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Because Homeland Security has now been tasked with collecting personal information and keeping data banks on anyone in the country who uses "traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed."

Which means there's a pretty good likelihood that they're keeping an eye on Hope n' Change Cartoons.

I just hope that there won't be an ugly midnight visit from Seal Team Six when they find out that my real name is Bill Maher.
-

-
Come and get me, coppers.

READERS: Blogspot has made some odd changes to the comment section which I find unnecessarily confusing and unattractive. Well, okay, hideous and illegible are actually the words I'm trying to avoid. For now, if you click on the "Comments" link below, it will open a new "pop-up" page where you can read and leave remarks more or less the way you could before. I'll  also continue trying to find a way to restore things to the way they were.

-

Recess Games

As if things weren't crazy enough in Washington, Barack Obama has just officially run the Constitution through his Executive Shredder, ushering in an exciting new "anything goes" period in his imperial presidency.

Specifically, he avoided Constitutionally-mandated senate approval of a number of appointees by using his "Recess Appointment" powers...even though the Senate wasn't in recess.

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, applauded the president's bold power grab and ignored the fact that the Senate was in "pro-forma session," in which a minimum number of Senators keep the floor open specifically to prevent ill-considered Recess Appointments. And why shouldn't Reid applaud this end-run? After all, the "pro-forma" mumbo jumbo is obviously just a big, transparent, political gimmick - right?

Well, no - or at least it wasn't when Harry Reid created the "pro-forma" session gimmick in order to keep George W. Bush from making appointments which had been blocked by the Democrats.

But now that there's precedent that the president can use his recess powers even when there is no recess, then why can't Joe Biden assume that Barack Obama has abdicated even if he hasn't - and has actually just gone to the biffy?

And why should it stop there? If Biden heads into the Whitehouse Latrine carrying the sports pages, then John Boehner can take over the presidency under the assumption that Biden isn't coming back. And if Boehner is smart enough to be wearing adult undergarments, the job is his to keep!

And say, now that the rules have gone out the window, why do the rest of us need to wait until November to vote Obama out of office?!

Either the Constitution is in force, or it isn't.

And all of us, including the president, should act accordingly.
-