Newt Rising and Mitt Slipping

The longer the GOP campaign continues, Mitt Romney looks worse and worse.  He lost tonight in South Carolina not because he was a Mormon but rather a rich Yankee Wall Street financier.   Y'all see, the folk in the birthplace of the Confederacy have long memories and remember the Reconstruction with hundreds of Massachusetts types streaming into the war ravaged state to take advantage of cheap real estate and other assets for pennies on the dollar.....exactly the current business of Bain Capital.

Romney is a descendant of a type of capitalist who provides a service for people in 'need'.  His LBO (leveraged buyout)  and VC (venture capitalist) deals with Bain were not entrepreneurial endeavors creating jobs based upon delivering a needed product or service but rather a series of financial manipulations of balance sheets and income statements.  He says he created jobs through Bain's efforts...true to a point.....many also in China.....but for his efforts he is an extremely wealthy man without having to come up with an original idea as a basis for a company.  He is a type of manager that is produced by Harvard  Business School.  In his particular case, he started at the top due to his father's influence and connections and never looked back or down ever again.

Now he has to explain why a substantial part of his wealth is parked in offshore accounts in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.  

"It is a shadow banking system that most Americans don't know anything about. Most Americans don't have the resources to be able to set up shell companies in half a dozen different countries so that they can "filter" their profits.  Most Americans don't know a thing about complicated tax avoidance plans that tax lawyers use such as the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich".  Most Americans would have no idea how to eventually have most of the money that they make end up in Bermuda so that it can avoid taxes." This quote is from an article The Global Elite Are Hiding 18 Trillion Dollars In Offshore Banks.  I highly recommend it.

Although Gingrich won tonight, Romney is still the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination and he is supported by the GOP establishment.  But can he win a general election?  Unfortunately, despite his looks, organization and money he has been unable to connect with the common person.  This is a problem in the general election when the GOP candidate must win the blue collar voters and convince them that he has their best interests at heart.   

He is Ivy League, from Massachusetts, a Wall Street financier, uses offshore banking to minimize taxes, never served in the military, introduced a failed comprehensive health care scheme in Massachusetts when he served as Governor and last but not least is a leader in the Mormon church with its unorthodox theology and secretive practices. 

No wonder Newt Gingrich with three marriages and a closet full of ghosts is beating the golden boy with all the money.  Newt connects with the common people.....something that Obama has somehow lost in his three years in the White House.....and something that Mitt cannot do.