WE NEED EXPERIENCED LEADERSHIP

October 9, 2012, Olympia, WA:
I have gathered information from stories I have received and compiled them into this document to be sent to voters throughout the U S A - - but if you know anyone in Ohio, please be sure they receive it....no president has ever won without winning Ohio, they say - - so let's make sure they see this!     Please send it on....

Why Mitt Romney is Unlikable

(OK – I’ll tell you up front, this is pro-Romney)

A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people. Frankly, I don’t understand why.

Perhaps it is for the following reasons.

Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney:

1. Drop-dead handsome with gracious, statesman-like aura. Looks like every central casting's #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

4. Has a track record of successful leadership.  Believes in our country, and is willing to provide his leadership skills to help get us back on track.

5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School...and his academic records are NOT sealed.

6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college.

7. Represents an America of "yesterday", where people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!

8. Has a family of five great sons....and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. They were raised by loving parents, with their mom being a stay-at-home mom.

9. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. They teach their members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.

10. And one more point.....pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money all by HIMSELF.....as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad.

Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable to Americans.

My goodness, it's a strange world, isn't it?

Personal Information:

Full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney

Born: March 12, 1947 (currently 65 years old)

His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan

Raised in:  Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Married: to Ann Romney (since 1969); they have five children.

Education:
B.A. from Brigham Young University,
J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University

Religion: Mormon - The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints

Working Background:
After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary.

After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar exam, but never worked as an attorney.

In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States.

In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy.

He was President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit.

Some Interesting Facts about Romney:

Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts, turned it into Staples; now over 2,000 stores employing 90,000 people.

Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino's, Sealy, BBBrookstone Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply and many others.

He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad's gubernatorial campaign 1 year.

He was an unpaid intern in his dad's governor's office for eight years.

He was an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years.

He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years.

He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.

He gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity.

Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country but has given more back to its citizens in terms of money, service and time than most men.

And in 2011 Mitt Romney gave over $4 million to charity, almost 19% of his income. Just for comparison purposes, Obama gave 1% and Joe Biden gave $300 or .0013%.

Mitt Romney is Trustworthy!   
Mitt Romney's background, experience and trustworthiness show him to be a great leader and an excellent citizen for President of the United States.
We need his fiscal responsibility and vast management experience. 

We won't like all the things necessary to recover from this debt, but someone with Romney's background can do it.

***That is where the forward I received ended....but I want to add just a bit more!  First is a disclaimer:   I don't like tongue-in-cheek digs directed at the President, even though they are true, so I edited them out.   I just don't like negative campaigns.  But  –  I also don't like being deceived, and we have been deceived over and over and the evidence is all available to be cited....

I have been stymied by why the media says Mitt Romney has a likability issue.  After watching the first of the debates, I found him to be engaging and forthright, and very likeable.  But  – even if he weren't, if I look at the stats side by side, I see him as abundantly more qualified for the office – and that's what I want:  someone who has had the experience he offers to lead this country!   I just hope we aren’t too late to put things in reverse.

Even if he weren't so affable, my choice would be the man who will do the best job.  Many years ago I needed to see a surgeon.  I was told, "You have a choice.  You can go to Dr. A, who has absolutely no bedside manner, whom some patients have said is rude to them  – but who is the best there is at what he does  –  or, if you need a warm, fuzzy Dr. who will hold your hand and comfort you, you can go to Dr. B, who will do precisely that."  While I do enjoy the camaraderie that can develop in the basic General Practitioner doctor-patient relationship, when it comes to the serious stuff, when it comes to surgery and someone prowling around inside me, I want the one who is best at doing the job.   I chose Dr. A! 

President Obama is a charming speaker - - but he is not the best man for the job.

Mitt Romney is as American as apple pie.  He is a poster child for living  the American dream that we can be anything we set our minds to.  He worked to get where he is – and he has the skill and knowledge to give America another chance.   If we don't take that opportunity, I believe our fate is sealed to enter a downward spiral that will destroy the country we so dearly love, and lead us to a path of imminent destruction.  

Fiscal responsibility is a must to run any household.  You cannot spend money you don't have....   The same principle holds true for the country.  Both parties share some of the guilt of where we are today – but the extreme imbalance started after the Democrats became the majority in Congress 2 years before Bush left the presidency.  And – we were enmeshed in war and had Hurricane Katrina and other disasters that contributed to draining the coffers.   That is not a ‘party’ issue – it’s just a reality of what life has been.     

That being said, President Obama promises things he cannot deliver without having free access to your wallet!  And that is self-defeating.  We were not established to be a Socialist nation – but that is where we will be entrenched if we have the most liberal Democrat ever for 4 more years….  Socialism isn’t working out so well for Europe.  Why would we want to mimic them?

And, the following is well worth noting when considering character:

THIS IS A STORY CONCERNING MITT ROMNEY’S ‘PERSONALITY’ AND CHARACTER AS IT HAS BEEN CIRCULATED VIA E-MAIL:

(Email text contributed by J. Moore, Feb. 2, 2012J

On Mitt Romney's character....

Sometimes this facet of Romney’s personality isn’t so subtle. 

In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy. Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was.

Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter. Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter.  Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could – prostitutes, drug addicts – anyone.

That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day. Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying, “It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die.”

So, here’s my epiphany: Mitt Romney simply can’t help himself. He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it, sometimes consciously, and sometimes not-so-consciously. He doesn’t do it for self-aggrandizement, or for personal gain. He does it because that’s just how he’s wired.

Many people are unaware of the fact that when Romney was asked by his old employer, Bill Bain, to come back to Bain & Company as CEO to rescue the firm from bankruptcy, Romney left Bain Capital to work at Bain & Company for an annual salary of one dollar. When Romney went to the rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he accepted no salary for three years, and wouldn’t use an expense account. He also accepted no salary as Governor of Massachusetts.

Character counts!! (and yes...that's worth reading again!)

FOR THOSE WHO NEED AFFIRMATION OF THE FACTS, THE PERTINENT FACTS OF THE ABOVE-RELATED STORY ARE TRUE, AS CORROBORATED BELOW BY URBAN LEGENDS,  CITING COMMENTS BY MITT ROMNEY AND THE FATHER OF THE GIRL:

Mitt Romney's Character - Urban Legends
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/mittromney/a/Mitt-Romneys-Character.htm?r=et

Analysis: Apart from a dollop of hyperbole and a few minor details that conflict with contemporary press reports (most notably the claim that the missing girl was suffering from serious drug withdrawals and "might not have survived another day" if she hadn't been found when she was), this account comports with the known facts.

On the night of July 6, 1996, 14-year-old Melissa Gay, daughter of Bain Capital executive Robert Gay, went missing after attending a late-night rave in New York City. Gay recruited his business partners, including Mitt Romney, and the Boston-based firm's 200 employees to help him conduct a city-wide search.

"And so I said," Romney recalled when asked about the incident during a town hall meeting in March 2012, "‘Let’s close the firm, let’s close the company. Let’s all of us fly down to New York and try to find her.’ And so we closed the business, we went home and packed our things, we got a hotel near the airport where we all went to, we set up a headquarters, we met with the detectives with the New York City Police Department, we hired a private investigative firm to help guide us through this process."

Gay, Romney, and team literally fanned out on the streets of Manhattan in suits and ties, distributing 300,000 fliers and asking passersby point-blank if they had seen the missing girl. Their efforts quickly paid off in the form of a phone call from a private residence in Montville, New Jersey, where it turned out Melissa was staying with acquaintances. She was retrieved by police and reunited with her parents in the early morning hours of July 12.

"She's OK," Robert Gay said in a statement to the Associated Press. "How can you ask for anything more than that?"

In a 2008 campaign video for his friend and former business partner, Gay described Romney's role in the rescue effort as follows: "My business partner stepped forward to take charge. He closed the company and brought almost all our employees to New York. He said, `I don't care how long it takes. We're going to find her.' He set up a command center and searched through the night. The man who helped save my daughter was Mitt Romney."

***

He sounds like a guy I'd like to have on my side!