Speakeasy forum: If not Mitt Romney, what successful business person

......is an automatic reason not to vote for someone (or TO vote for them). My main concern with a businessperson would be that they may not have the background or understanding of world affairs that is especially important nowadays. Donald Trump is a businessman and his solution to every world problem was to shake people down and make economic threats, because that's how he does business.

In Romney's case, my problem is the WAY he did business and how he made his money. He's a cutthroat who is only concerned with his own bottom line, and that's not what I want in a president.

Bill Gates might have been an interesting choice. He obviously understands the businessplace, his philanthropic work has taken him all over the world so he has that exposure, plus he can mess with Iran by shipping them software that will bring their nuclear program completely down.

never employed by Bain nor were you a resident of Mass....I find it rather difficult to believe that you actually know what you are talking about when you say "my problem is the WAY he did business and how he made his money". You only have liberal rags telling you something and they don't have any proof that he did anything differently than any other investment firm has done business and there are plenty out there that are actually owned by liberals who also like to get rich, Josh. And if you think BO isn't a cutthroat who is only concerned with his own ego, agenda, and bottom line, you are dreaming.........Where he is today has been his sole goal in life and everything he did as an adult and all of the connections he made throughout that ladder climbing career was with this in mind. I really have to wonder what he will do with his time once the Oval Office is taken away from that butt. I imagine him pacing and chain-smoking in between golf putting and basket hoop shots. You can pretty much bet that the Hollywood scene will be off courting another 'rock star' cuz he'll be old news to them....Hollywood is pretty fickle.

that he not only did nothing wrong or illegal, but that OTHER similar investment firms operate the SAME way. The only thing 'green' is the BO agenda and your face over Romney's tax returns.

Deliberately shutting down the oil wells in the gulf for much longer than needed to be, deliberately shutting down coal mines, refineries, drilling, deliberately shutting Delphi out of the bailout and all the trickle down jobs lost from the dealerships being forced to close, deliberately hiring Immelt as his jobs adviser when over 70% of GE's jobs are all overseas and two of those operations shut down and left the USA AFTER he became the adviser? Gimme a break........the administration has done more to shut down jobs than any other pres in history. And don't give me that Bush crap......Bush didn't have that happen on his watch because he had done it DELIBERATELY....THIS prez DID.

successful business tactics actually produce jobs, but don't want to hear about how BO's business tactics LOSE jobs. You don't like the rant, don't make ridiculous statements that can be compared to 'your guy' in the clouds.

GM and Chrysler would have gone through the court system to make decisions like that....that's the normal way companies restructure. This was done by a demand by the WH in order to save the Union ONLY jobs......and tossed all the rest to the road, including huge numbers of Delphi NON-Union jobs when perhaps they were more productive than the Union ones but we'll never know now....and those dealerships and the trickle down to mom-pop suppliers to them were also non-union.

This is not twisted logic......it's Chicago tactics......do it my way or you get no help.

"Dear Blessed Leader Obama, tell me what to think today. Amen"

"In Romney's case, my problem is the WAY he did business and how he made his money. He's a cutthroat who is only concerned with his own bottom line, and that's not what I want in a president."

Mr. Buffett and Mr. Obama sure have a wonderful thing going on with Buffetts wind power farms and Obama's stimulus monies. IMO, Buffett has agreed to promote the tax the rich rhetoric for the lining of his own pockets. Is this what you prefer in a president?

But, it is true that Buffett purchased MidAmerican Energy Co. and MidAmerican and their sub's received stimulus money. Siemans, a foreign owned company is a major supplier for MidAmerican, too. Siemans US plant in Kansas built blades and nacelles for a very large project, but the beef of the turbine manufacturing money didn't stay in the US.

So much for non out sourcing.

http://www.windpowerengineering.com/construction/407-mw-more-headed-to-iowa/

I also enjoyed reading about the Heil Family Farm, in Iowa. Buffett owns their wind turbines and Obama paid a surprise visit the farm recently and the Heil's gladly showed Obama around the farm, but said that they would pray for him, but they would not vote for him because they feel his policies are not right for America.

"...President Obama's first term record and rhetoric does not represent Middle America, entrepreneurs, small business owners and farmers," Heil writes.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/15/158884594/obamas-iowa-hosts-say-theyll-pray-for-him-but-they-wont-vote-for-him

Josh, in a way Bain reminds me of a cable TV show. It's the one where the chef Gordon Ramsey finds existing restaurants that started off well but currently are in danger of going out of business due to unwise business practices. Ramsey enters the picture, reorganizes it, and leaves it as a stable, profit making business.
Bain took things like Staples office supplies, reorganized them, and turned them from being in danger of failing into a profitable company. In their wake they left a company that then grew and contributed to the economy.
As for the business practices of Bill Gates, they got quite nasty sometimes in the past. Remember the "Browser Wars" and computer makers trying to sell computers with a browser or OS that was not Microsoft?

Love the guy, but.....

I would also vote for Colin Powell in a heartbeat, but he's too smart to run.

I doubt if my local cupcake maker is looking to become a world dominating business anytime soon.

Example......my sister's neighbor was spending $500 per month to rent a chair at a local barbershop just to cut hair. He saved a chunk of money so he could start his own shop and rent out two extra chairs to help make payments. He found a building that already had sinks, stall walls, etc, and paid the rent. He went to move in with his equipment and add a couple of chairs and found out that the building had been stripped by looters during the two weeks he was gathering his own supplies, etc. The landlord had already dropped the interior insurance so it wasn't covered........so the neighbor kept cutting hair as many times a day as possible at the old job while paying rent on the building and buying the interior parts that he needed for the new opening. Inspectors came in and kept him jumping with so many issues that he couldn't open for another three months, further in debt, lost his car and managed to finally get it back two months later after having to ride the bus for a while. The hoops he had to go through just to have a small startup business were tremendous and the costs were through the roof, but the worst of it all was the city and the regulations that kept mounting up because they changed nearly every day to the point he didn't think he could keep up any longer. The inspector was nitpicking on stupid stuff until the inspector finally said...If you had paid me at the beginning you could have been open three months ago. Evidently he had offered to look the other way at the very beginning if the kid would have given him the 'pocket money' he suggested and the kid had turned him down. The kid just kept plugging away on the crap until the inspector had nothing left to pick apart, and he's now open.

Sometimes, it isn't the conservatives that has given money the status of God, Grim......

way to do business anymore....in all branches of government. If the Feds can get away with over regulation there is nothing to stop local governments from doing the same thing, so they are, and they are using those regs to their officials' wallet advantage on a regular basis now. You scratch my back and I'll give you your permits has gone to a whole new level.......the mob/mafia is no longer the only ones providing 'services'.

It's just different groups that end up controlling and selling permits, offices or contracts.

.....that Mitt Romney wants to repeal the new laws that Obama put in place to try to put an end to those practices, right?