Imagine with me for a second that you are a known millionaire living on the outskirts of Boston. One day you hear a knock at your door. When you open it, there is a tall handsome man standing there. In a smooth baritone voice, the man who looks like he’s just stepped out of a Calvin Klein ad begins walking you through an investment he’d like to get you to make.
“I’m with a private equity firm Bain Capital.”
You listen curiously as he explains who he is, why he’s qualified to make these investments, and why he’s come to you. He gives you thick business plans that his team has put together and carefully explains to you step-by-step how each of the investments in this portfolio is going to be turned into obscene amounts of money.
You thank him, and you shake his hand. You walk him to the door, and tell him to call you later in the week after you’ve diligently gone through the financials of the company’s he’s discussed with you.
When he leaves, you begin calling everyone you know, “I just had a young man named Mitt Romney come here with an investment opportunity. What do you know about Mitt?” People who have heard the name tell you that Mitt is an impressive guy who distinguished himself at Bain and Company, a fairly young consulting firm when he joined. But that this Bain Capital thing is new and that it has no track record, but that they think he’s competent. You look through the folder he gave you, and you really like what you see. It’s clear that Mitt and his team did their homework and have presented a very specific, statistics heavy business plan that delineates where the companies are now and how they will get them to where they want them to be in the future.
You decide to invest (risk) YOUR money. You send Mitt and his team at Bain Capital a check in the amount of $5 million. You’re rich, so you have that just kind of lying around. But the money is withdrawn from your account, and is now in the hands of this new, unknown firm. It could be disappeared tomorrow if you’ve made the wrong call.
A year later, the same young, dapper looking gentleman comes to your door to discuss another possible investment opportunity. You go get your end of the year statement. “Last year, you more than doubled my investment.”
You don’t take but two seconds to think about it; you double down. You call your accountant, and have him wire the money over instantly. You give the young man and his team all the money they earned for you plus another $10 million because they got results. Year after year, similar results are achieved, and you keep pumping money into Bain Capital. Each year, your wealth doubles. You make millions on your investments. You pay capital gains taxes only, which meant you got to keep most of your earnings.
The media’s been criticizing Romney for his involvement in the private equity firm Bain Capital which he started with a small team of investors. If you’re not familiar with what Bain Capital is, let me give you a simple overview. Usually, what a private equity firm (like Bain) does is they look at possible investments, comb through the financials of companies that they are considering investing in, and decide whether or not a firm has the potential to turn into a big investment. A lot of these companies are small, have smart management, and want to grow. Others are growing, hit a wall, and are on the verge of bankruptcy. Based on the financials, researched market opportunities, overall possibility of the investment as a whole (which includes what the team of investors thinks they can do with the company based on their own contacts and expertise), the firm makes a decision about whether the company will be invited into the portfolio. Then, based on that research, the firm courts possible investors. To these investors, they present the opportunity. These possible investors include high net worth individuals, funds, and basically any other place one might find large pools of money. These investors decide to invest for different reasons. But more than anything, the people doing the investment, generally, have to prove that they are competent to turn an investors $10 million investment in to $50 million over the next 5 or so years. It’s not a guarantee that their money will increase, but it’s about expected outcomes and maintaining a large basket of investments.
Basically, the team of Bain investors puts money into a group of companies they think they can improve or save (or make money on in some weird, albeit legal, way). Some of these companies are going to be riskier investments, some will be less risky investments. When all is said and done, the hope is that the plan executed by the investment firm returns large amounts of profits to the investors.
Like in the imagined story above, if investors are happy, they put more money into Bain the following year. If they are unhappy, they don’t.
Occasionally, Bain’s investments go south. Sometimes they split up a company and sell it in parts (Ever seen the movie Pretty Woman?), sometimes a company goes bankrupt and Bain sells its assets to recover what it can. In those cases, people get laid off. But sometimes, companies like Staples emerge and recover the losses from the bad investments by many many multiples. To date, their success rate is about 50/50. But like I said, those wins have turned Bain Capital into a cash cow. 113% annually is incredibly impressive. A ponzi scheme, for example, generally entices investors with 20% returns.
Now, let’s put that against Obama’s obsession with rescuing companies. This administration (and to be fair, the Bush administration as well) loves the idea of throwing tax money at companies they like. The most famous of these companies are GM and Solyndra. The investments are made based on political biases, pandering to constituencies, lobbying, and polls. Obama loves to claim that he saved GM. And yet, GM hasn’t exactly repaid the American tax payer the money they were given. GM got its money because of its powerful unions. Ford didn’t take a penny. They’re doing fine and they have one of the most popular cars on the road. GM took a lot of pennies. They’re doing fine now too, even though they are building some of the most unpopular cars on the road. Sure, they broke out their company’s pension plans, but someone’s still paying them. This administration threw money at Solyndra because it occupied a particular segment of the market that the far left is obsessed with, and despite incredible negative market pressures. In fact they went under because China was undercutting them on solar panels – a fact that Obama loved to bring up when this was in the news cycle. But let’s be honest, was this a surprise? Did China start undercutting US solar panels after the investment was made? No way! China’s been undercutting us on everything we produce for years, and it’s going to be that way for a while. Maybe not forever. But for a while.
The due diligence that was done indicated to the Bush administration that Solyndra was a bad investment. The Obama administration said to hell with any due diligence, and gave the fledgling company a lot of money.
Whose money did they throw at Solyndra?
It was yours.
That’s right, Romney gambled with the money of rich people and companies who voluntarily entrusted Romney and his team to make good investments. Romney put in large amounts of his own money into Bain Capital’s investments as well. If the investments had failed, Romney and his investors could have lost everything. But that’s not what happened.
As a reward, those investors were given huge returns.
Now, a lot of Obama’s investments have gone south. Solyndra is one of many examples. Your return on investment as a taxpayer is nowhere near 113%. The difference is that in Romney’s case, if you wanted to not invest in the next fund, you didn’t have to. Try doing that with taxes. “No thanks Mr. IRS, I don’t want to pay in this year….” Try it, I dare you. In the case of private equity, the companies that investors rescue oftentimes turn into multimillion dollar firms like Staples, and others get liquidated and people lose their jobs. Aren’t those the same two results that Obama claims his tax-backed investments might induce?
“When you get new industries… it’s easy to raise money for start-ups… but if you want to take them to scale, oftentimes, there is a lot of risk involved. What the loan guarantee program is designed to do was to help startup companies get to scale. And the understanding is that some companies are not going to succeed, some companies will do very well. But the portfolio as a whole ends up supporting the kind of innovation that helps make America succesful in this innovative 21st century economy.”
First of all, it’s not easy to raise money for start-ups. That’s just a lie. It’s very difficult. You need a great team, you need a great product or service, and you need people with a lot of money to agree to throw money at you because they are confident in your product. You need huge amounts of persistence. But when you get down to it, isn’t this Obama quote basically the definition of private equity?
Obama claims that the way he manages the governments “investments” is he invests in companies that have risky business models that appear like they might be strong candidates for success. He invests in a large enough number of them to make sure that losses are mitigated by gains. You know what we call that? PRIVATE EQUITY. Obama is running a private equity firm, and he’s using the government’s money to do it.
The difference is that when Obama spends your money, that money is in the wind. You don’t get it back. Your part of Obama’s investment is lost before it’s even made. Get it? Even though he’s using your money to make the investments, you will never see a return on it.
When Romney makes an investment, his investors get paid back or lose it all. It doesn’t affect you unless you work for one of those companies that go under or you’re one of those investors who gets paid (or doesn’t get paid).
The money that Obama lost was the money of Americans who didn’t give him permission to make investments for them. We were unwilling participants in Obama’s own tax-funded version of private equity. We were forced to pay taxes. And with that money, the administration has put our money into some stinky investments that haven’t returned a penny.
So, if Obama thinks that going after Romney during this political season for his work at Bain Capital is a good idea, I think he should think twice. I don’t think that he’ll come out on top if what Obama wants to fight about is how he and Romney have invested other people’s money.
A lot of people are saying that Ron Paul is slated to win the Ok State’s delegates. We’re awaiting a delegate list, but I am pretty sure that the good Doctor may have tied up most of the state’s delegation. We’ll see when comes dawn and all the dust settles.
There are also reports that Idaho’s state convention was improperly closed allowing Ron Paul to snag a number of delegate slots when it was reconvened by Paul’s supporters in the parking lot. Again, not exactly sure if that’s true, or what it means in terms of the delegate counts, but there are reports that things went better than expected for Dr. Paul.
I’m still waiting on reports from Arizona’s state convention. I understand there are weird happenings with the delegate lists. I’ll have more if I hear about it.
Ok, so we’re way way ahead of this. If you’re a normal person who pays attention to about as much news as a normal person might pay attention to, this will come as a total shock to you. You’ve probably been wondering why in the heck Ron Paul has continued to run instead of dropping out and doing the usual endorsement of what everyone is now calling the “presumptive nominee”. Well, the reason is because most states haven’t actually knighted the delegates they are planning on sending on to Tampa.
Now it’s a convoluted process, but as I understand it (and I don’t), the way this works is that most states have some sort of preliminary vote. In some cases, this takes the form of a primary, in other cases it is a caucus. In either case, most states then get people together either by county or at some big ol’ state convention operated under Robert’s Rules of Order and then select who will go to the party’s national convention. So far, most states have only held that initial vote. What that means is, most states haven’t actually decided who will represent them in Tampa when the candidate is actually decided.
Mitt Romney CaricatureWhy is it important? Well, it’s important because since the delegates are picked after the primaries and caucuses, there is a chance that the vote taken in the primary or at the caucus will have no bearing on who is actually sent to the convention itself. In Iowa, for example, Mitt Romney won 24.5% of the vote, Rick Santorum won 24.6% of the vote, Ron Paul won 21.4% of the vote, Newt Gingrich who stole Christmas came in at 13.3% of the vote, Rick Perry got 10.3% of the vote, Michele Bachmann got 5% of the vote, Huntsman snagged .6% of the vote, and the rest of te .3% was divided among Mickey Mouse, Goofy and probably some candidates who thought they actually mattered at all (poor Gary Johnson). Despite those numbers, and Ron Paul coming in a solid 3rd place, with 16 of the 28 delegates apportioned already (the remaining 12 to be given out at the party’s June 15 state convention), more than half of those available have apparently gone to Dr. Paul. Since delegates have a mind of their own and can basically do whatever they want when comes Tampa, there is no absolute number, but a lot of writers believe that Ron Paul has at least 13 delegates in Iowa. When the party’s convention occurs, we’ll see if he picks up more. There is a chance that Ron Paul will basically have every single Iowa delegate.
Confused?
Wondering how a man who gets less than 22% of the vote could possibly get 100% of the delegates? Well, most people didn’t know it was possible. But the party’s convoluted rules allow it to happen which makes some of us pretty happy this year .
Anyhow, like I said, there are no definite numbers when it comes to these delegates I’ve done my best to compile what I consider to be a credible list of the delegate numbers below. As this all gets underway, I will also try to link to credible sources so you can actually believe what I am writing. Because, if this is actually a reflection of the party’s machanations, well… to borrow from the Bible, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Maybe you’ll put a bit more credence in what I say if it’s not me, but, rather, the Des Moines Register that confirms it. That said, let us begin.
I have done my best to compile this list, so forgive me if a few things are wrong here and there. I think it’s as accurate as anything there is out there since so much of it is conjecture anyhow. I did my best, and I’ll be adding more sources as we go. If you find any mistakes, comment below, or if there are developments, put them in the comments with a source. I will update the table as that occurs.
Anyhow, only 625 delegates have actually been definitively given out. That said, the hard total based on bound delegates (which some Ron Paul supporters are saying doesn’t matter) Romney has something more like 811 delegates. Here’s the thing, a lot of Ron Paul supporters have been making hey about Rule 38. The Rule states “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state or Congressional district to impose the unit rule.”
What’s the Unit Rule? Good question! Well, I didn’t know, so I looked it up. According the Dictionary.com it is “a rule whereby a state’s delegation votes as a unit, not recognizing minority votes within the delegation.” According to Paulites, Rule 38 allows Romney’s so-called bound delegates to vote however they want in the first round of voting. I tried my best to read it like that, but I find it hard to read rule 38 in that way. It seems to me that if you are bound, you’re bound by contract to your state to vote for the candidate you went to the convention to represent. That said, it is traditional in the convention to only be bound in the first round of voting. If a candidate fails to achieve the 1144 candidates necessary to win this years floor vote, delegates are essentially unbound. That said, a lot of Paulites who are bound Romney delegates are discussing just abstaining from voting during the first round. I couldn’t find anything on abstaining in the rules. So, doing that might set off quite a raucous. Anyhow, the rules for the party convention are below, so go ahead and take a look at them for yourself. Come to your own conclusions.
When looked at objectively, it’s hard to understand how Ron Paul could make much of a dent in the nomination of Mitt Romney. But who knows? To date, he’s proved more resilient than anyone would have given him credit for being. He has continually said that he doesn’t want to cause problems at the convention, but it may end up being an inevitability. If he ends up racking up enough delegates, the convention might be way more interesting than anyone would ever have guessed.
UPDATE: Ben Swann brings up exactly my concern regarding the Unit Rule – the fact that it doesn’t apply to states binding individuals – and then explains why how the RNC itself may have hoisted themselves upon their own petard in the case of interpreting this part of their rulebook. Apparently, while the Unit rule doesn’t appear to apply to individuals as it is stated, the RNC’s legal council actually ruled differently. In the last election, the RNC’s own legal council proffered this opinion about their party’s own rule: “[The] RNC does not recognize a state’s binding of national delegates, but considers each delegate a free agent who can vote for whoever they choose.” What’s more is that this opinion was given when one McCain delegate preferred instead to vote for Mitt Romney. Whoops…
The other day at the Nevada and Maine campaigns which both happened from May 5 through May 6, there was a bit of political jockeying as might be expected. But there was also some alleged fraud that was going on right in the middle of the convention.
To be honest, a bit of back and forth about the rules, using those rules as a lever to get your way, however surprising your way might be, is pretty awesome. Whoever you are, whether you like Ron Paul or not, the genius of this out-of-the-box strategy is hard not to appreciate. But fraud, in my opinion, seems like a big big problem; fraud in any form.
Now here’s the thing, the Paul campaign has certainly fostered the conditions that are necessary to get hundreds and thousands of their supporters out to these conventions. The feat is impressive because they have, in almost every case where it has been possible, outshown Romney’s most ardent supporters and stolen Romney’s delegates by using the Party’s screwed up rules. Now, if Paul had stolen Romney’s delegates in only one state, we might all look at it and think that it was a fluke, a blip in the primary system. But it’s happened now in at least 5 states, and in as many as 9 states possibly. Any onlooker would admit that 9 states probably indicates that this is somehow coordinated… and they would be right.
So what does this have to do with what happened in Nevada and Maine? Well, nothing directly other than it is this strategy that is really stoking the ire of the RNC and the Romney campaign. Also, it’s pretty clear that anomalies are generally isolated, but when many anomalies are clustered, it is a pretty good indication that something fishy is going on. So I am going to ask you to be very honest and consider this:
First, you must realize that Nevada and Maine’s conventions happened concomitantly. They were going on at the same time. The two states are almost as far from each other as they possibly could be. Finally, in both conventions Romney supporters showed up with nearly perfect replicas of the Ron Paul delegate list and distributed them en masse to convention goers.
Do you think it’s likely that two rogue Romney supporters showed up at two different conventions happening at exactly the same time and attempted to commit exactly the same sort of election fraud at exactly the same point in the convention… or, do you think someone coordinated it? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck….
I have sent a request to the Romney campaign to comment on the two conterfeit ballots. If they respond, I will let you know. It wasn’t necessarily the Romney campaign that coordinated this effort, but it is fairly obvious that the tactic was most certainly a coordinated one.
Nevada’s fake delegate ballot
Maine’s fake delegate ballot
These videos were found at the Daily Paul. I couldn’t go without mentioning it, since the site is one of the only places one can go to find good information about what’s actually happening in the Paul campaign. They do great work.
I’m a Ron Paul fan. Please please please don’t stop reading just because I admitted to what seems to be a sin more intolerable than public sodomy. Sure, Ron Paul’s supporters don’t fall into the ranks of your GOP traditionalists, and some of them aren’t all that nice. But for those of us lucky enough to be among this generation’s credulous youth, we see a lot of merit to the old-timer’s candidacy. And for those of you who think that this is a movement full of credulous youth, you might want to start paying attention, because you’re about to get beat by your own party’s rules.
While you have all been busy voting for your favorite candidate – Romney, Santorum, and the Gingrich who stole Christmas – Ron Paul’s supporters have been doing the bit of work that actually matters. Were you under the impression that your state’s caucus or primary result was a good indicator of who your state would pick as the party’s nominee in Tampa? That would be a good assumption to make, save for the fact that in a lot of states those initial results are nothing but a beauty contest. It’s why Ron Paul didn’t win. He refused to strut his stuff in a bikini and juggle or say that his favorite thing to do was cook up a batch of world peace. Instead, the crotchety, old man apparently spent the last four years developing a strategy and base of support that is confusing to most of us because… well… we’ve never run for President so we don’t really know how it all works.
For a lot of states, after the primary happens, there is another event where all the party’s big wigs get together and pick who is going onto the national convention. While the usual result is that the state’s big primary winner sends the most votes in the form of a delegate to the convention, that is not necessarily the case. And so, while you cast your vote thinking that it was all said and done, the Ron Paul campaign has been (very blatantly) surreptitiously crowding the state conventions and sending Ron Paul delegates in place of Romney delegates.
Confused? Well, I don’t blame you. It’s a weird system we have. But since I am enjoying this year’s weird outcome, I’m not going to complain much. Remember who won Iowa? It was Santorum… then Romney… then Santorum again… or something like that. What would you do if I told you that neither Romney nor Santorum won Iowa? Make sure you’re not near a hard object that you might want to smack your head against, because I’m about to tell you just that.
SANTORUM AND ROMNEY BOTH LOST IOWA AND RON PAUL WON.
Don’t believe me? You think that my claim proves that I’m a yute prone to strange conspiracies like “George Bush blew up the World Trade Centers” or “the Ruskies shot JFK” or “Monsanto wants to turn your babies into cancer using Chemtrails”. I’m not, but me just telling you that probably isn’t all that convincing. So I’ve gone and found some very reputable news sources that you can go ahead and read for yourself. While the American right has been sleeping, it has been confirmed that Ron Paul has picked up a majority of the delegates in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Maine, Washington, Louisiana, Massachusetts. It is not confirmed for sure, but there are a convention-goers who are sure that Ron Paul has also won a majority of Alaska’s delegate and a majority of Colorado’s delegates. If I were a betting man, I’d be willing to wager a few of my hard-earned George Washingtons that Paul has a fighting chance at getting a majority of delegates in numerous other states that hold state conventions to select Tampa-bound delegates as well.
Now, this is a weird local story that we don’t usually cover. But this is a weird turn of events that is incredibly notable. In this case, the accused has admitted guilt regarding his sexual crimes. His grandfather told police that the man had admitted to a murder of a man who was considered a pillar of the community. Kind of insane!
As America tries to close its deficit by uncovering tax cheats, a lot of Americans are starting to give up the very thing that makes them liable to pay for those taxes – their citizenship. This year 1780 citizens renounced their American citizenship. In 2008 that number was only 235. This marks a more than 7-fold increase in the number of citizens who are becoming effectively uncitizened in the name of not-paying-taxes-anymore.
Would you ever give up your citizenship because you hate taxes or as a result of taxes being too complicated?
Mitt Romney
Barack Obama
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