Maybe it is just me. Did anyone else wonder what transpired in early February causing Mitt Romney to suddenly suspend his presidential election campaign? Just as he enjoyed the near unanimous support of talk radio’s conservative elite and the secular right, He threw in the towel! When speaking before CPAC, he put aside his prepared speech which had been distributed to the press and he unexpectedly withdrew from the race. He is said to have spent $40 million dollars of his own money on the race. Why quit?
What was the Deal??
From The Huffington Post Feb 7, 2008
"Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign on Thursday, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for John McCain."I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives. "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference
Now, wasn’t that nice of Mitt? Out of love of country, mom and apple pie he would step aside, ceding the race to McCain. It was as if he had given his bus seat, to a feeble old lady. The guy is a regular Boy Scout! He thinks of interests of others first, putting aside his own ambitions for power and glory.
Under normal circumstances such selflessness would disqualify anyone from membership in the GOP. The whole idea of capitalism, as evangelized by the Publican Party, is that each nation, corporation or individual must serve its own self-interests, for the good of mankind and to preserve stability in the universe. That is how God made it. But, I digress.
I suspect that someone made Mitt Romney an offer too good to refuse.
Some background...
Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan, March 12, 1947. His father, George W. Romney was born forty years earlier in Chihuahua, Mexico to American parents living in a colony of people who had fled the United States because of the federal government's opposition to polygamy. From these humble beginnings George W Romney grew to be chairman of American Motors Corporation, the Governor of Michigan, and eventually the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Forty years ago, in February 1968, George W. Romney withdrew from the race for the nomination of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. He had flip-flopped on the Viet-Nam war issue; he was for it before he was against it. Mitt was then almost 21 years old, enjoying draft deferments which enabled him to serve thirty months as a missionary to France and to complete his education.
From Wikipedia:
In 1975, Romney graduated from a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He graduated cum laude from the law school and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.
After graduation Mitt Romney worked hard day and night to rid himself of the stigma of his Harvard degrees. Not wanting to be seen as just another elite New England Liberal Yankee, He buried himself in the drab work-a-day world of a Boston business consultant. After consulting day after day, in all kinds of weather for almost ten years Romney’s career seemed stalled as a vice president of the consulting firm Bain & Company, Inc., of Boston. Mitt Romney left behind the life of a wage slave to co-found a spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital. Now Mitt was able to master the art of the leveraged buyout. He traded companies like baseball cards. He perfected capitalism. He bought, downsized, consolidated, outsourced, streamlined, exported and liquidated more companies than you can shake a stick at.
He made money!
Today it is said that Mitt Romney is worth about 350 million dollars. He graduated Harvard in 1975, about 38 years ago. If Mitt had worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 38 years and he saved every penny, paid no taxes or mortgage, student loans, medical bills, NOTHING! If he stuffed every dollar he earned into a mattress and earned no interest; if he took no off days or vacations and spent nothing he would have to have been paid over TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS PER HOUR with no deductions in order to end up with 350 million dollars. Not that there is anything wrong with that!
What does one do with 350 million dollars? Well, one could invest it at, for example, 5 percent per year. That would get you about 17.5 million per year. About $ 336,000 per week (before taxes)
Try Politics, like George W Romney
Mitt Romney had some time on his hands, and some extra cash, so he made a run against Ted Kennedy for his Senate seat in 1994. It only cost Romney over 7 million dollars and he came kind of close to winning. (58 % - 42%)
In 1999 Mitt Romney went on to be the President and C.E.O. of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. There he showed the world that a profit of $100,000,000 could be made out of an event that most people assumed was non-profit.
In 2002 he was elected Governor of Massachusetts and it only cost him 6.5 million dollars. After one term as Governor, Mitt figured he was ready to be the President of the United States of America, but what is stopping him?
Why would he suddenly give it up in February 2008 at the CPAC meeting?
My theory is that he made a deal with whoever is in charge of those things in the Publican party. They decided to let Senator McCain win the nomination; the V.P. spot would go to Romney, who could guarantee lots of spending money. Then, win or lose, Mitt Romney would be set up to run for president in 2012. If McCain wins the election, Romney takes Cheney’s office and runs the show. Romney could hold power for twelve years.
Forty years ago George Romney lost the nomination to Nixon. How about the next forty years? Well in just happens that Mitt Romney has more Romneys in the wings. There are five sons who could serve as President for eight years each. The last one would leave office in 2061 at the age of eighty years. The succession would work out this way: Mitt Romney runs in 2012 and 2016. He retires in 2021, age 74 years. Then Tagg serves 2021 – 2029 and leaves office age 59... Matt Romney 2029 – 2037 age 66 ... Josh Romney 2037 -2045 age 70...Ben Romney 2045 – 2053 age 75 ...Craig Romney 2053 – 2061 age 80. After that, Mitt Romney has eleven GRANDCHILDREN!!
There are those who would make a deal with the Devil himself for such power. Does anyone know if Cheney was at the CPAC meeting?
I hope I have not frightened anyone
Get ready for McCain/Romney 08
Note: I got most of this information from Wikipedia. I just made up the rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
UPDATE
I type very slowly. I have Parkinson's, this diary took several hours. I probably won't reply quickly. To sleep now.