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JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Romney warns 'we don't want Europe here'

World Dec. 31, 2011 - 03:45AM JST ( 23 )

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23 Comments

-2

some14someDec. 31, 2011 - 08:09AM JST

“I want to keep America, America,” said the former Massachusetts governor,

meaning? Occupy Wall Street ? that Europe will not want either.
0

SpeedDec. 31, 2011 - 08:22AM JST

The problem is that "America is not working" that well either.
0

SpeedDec. 31, 2011 - 08:23AM JST

At least for the middle-class and poor.
0

plasticmonkeyDec. 31, 2011 - 09:02AM JST

Well, I'm sure Europe doesn't want to be like the wonderful state of Mississippi either. The fact is, most indexes measuring quality of life, economic dynamism, upward mobility, public safety, and political environment rate many (mostly northern) European countries above the United States. Americans need to swallow their pride a bit and face the fact that they can learn a thing or two from the Europeans. Europe may have overreached in some areas of government intervention, but they are being distorted by Romney as indicative of the failures of such a system in general.

But I guess beating your chest and wrapping yourself in the stars and stripes is a clever election technique.
-1

unreconstructedDec. 31, 2011 - 09:13AM JST

The fact is, most indexes measuring quality of life, economic dynamism, upward mobility, public safety, and political environment rate many (mostly northern) European countries above the United States.

So what modern-day American needs is to become more like northern Europe, or maybe reclaim that heritage, eh? Yeah, I can guess the kind of hysteria the mainstream media and the Left (but I repeat myself there...) would work themselves into if Romney were to mouth such nonsense.
0

SerranoDec. 31, 2011 - 11:06AM JST

I hear Santorum is surging.
-1

plasticmonkeyDec. 31, 2011 - 11:27AM JST

Yeah, I can guess the kind of hysteria the mainstream media and the Left (but I repeat myself there...) would work themselves into if Romney were to mouth such nonsense.

It wouldn't be nonsense unless he were attempting to reclaim some sort of racial or ethnic privilege that much of middle America bemoans the loss of. Were he to acknowledge the progress northern Europe has made in terms of a life that is far more comfortable to a far wider range of ethnicities and races, Romney would not face criticism from any reasonable American, including those in your so-called hysterical mainstream lefty media.
0

LagunaDec. 31, 2011 - 12:27PM JST

“I want to keep America, America,” said the former Massachusetts governor, who accuses Obama of getting the government overly involved in the daily workings of the economy.

A comma isn't required there: "I want to keep America America" is how it should have been written.

Iowa, which receives more Federal subsidies per capita than most any other state, is a strange place to make this argument.
3

globalwatcherDec. 31, 2011 - 01:31PM JST

I never forget what he has said, "Corporations are like people!" That has said all about him. Watch out.
0

smithinjapanDec. 31, 2011 - 02:20PM JST

"....Ours was formed as an opportunity nation,”

Umm... Europe is not a nation, it's a continent. I see Romney's about as clueless as the dolt palin is in terms of what is a continent and what is a country. But hey.... nothing about what Romney plans to do to 'avoid becoming the nation of Europe', just fear-mongering as is usual from the GOP (and fear based on xenophobia). But what can you expect from a man that thinks corporations are people?
-2

johninnahaDec. 31, 2011 - 03:18PM JST

Europe is a continent, but they're trying to make it into a country.

Or at least they were.

Something tells me the experiment isn't paying off.

It would be true to say that Europe isn't working either.
0

NinjaDaveDec. 31, 2011 - 03:31PM JST

Actually Thatcher said "Labour isn't working" which was a play on words re the Labour party.
0

unreconstructedDec. 31, 2011 - 03:42PM JST

smithinjapan

Umm... Europe is not a nation, it's a continent.

Nowhere did Romney say that. Try reading closer, smith. He is talking Europe as an idea - the modern cradle-to- grave entitlement system enacted there. As someone who lived in France for two or three years and made himself fluent in their language I am quite certain that Romney knows Europe is not a single nation. Yeah. Read that again. Unlike Obama ("I don't speak a foreign language. It's embarrassing!" ) candidate Romney speaks a language that 'liberals' - the American variety, at any rate - most consider proof of worldliness and sophistication. No, Romney is not the one who believes folks in Vienna speak "Austrian". That was your hero, Obama.

I see Romney's about as clueless as the dolt palin is in terms of what is a continent and what is a country.

.

But hey.... nothing about what Romney plans to do to 'avoid becoming the nation of Europe',

Nothing indeed. Because he never said anything as ludicrous as America becoming like 'the nation of Europe'. Again, try reading closer: Romney said Obama's misguided policies "are making us more and more like Europe."

Like Palin it seems Romney also lives rent-free in your head, and also broadcasts there

just fear-mongering as is usual from the GOP (and fear based on xenophobia).

Smith, can you tell us how straight talk about our moribund economy (a staggering 47 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 are without jobs) is 'fear-mongering' ?

But what can you expect from a man that thinks corporations are people?

If corporations aren't made up of people exactly what are they made of, smith? I am sure the late Steve Jobs also considered his corporation to be comprised of people first and foremost. That is what made him a leader. Like so many Obama devotees you apparently regard all corporations other than Apple to be criminal enterprises. Fine. What would you have in place of the free market system?

You can't answer, I know...
0

LagunaDec. 31, 2011 - 03:43PM JST

It would be true to say that Europe isn't working either.

Europe was at war with itself continuously since early man first learned to bonk another on the head - until the last 50 years (with the exception of Yugoslavia - and that was also a step in the right direction). This lasting peace is in itself a tremendous achievement. Let's also not forget that the achievement of US unity was not without its bumps, as Atlanta and Burmingham, amongst other places, will attest.

Compare Europe to the squabbling nations of Asia and it looks a whole lot better. Compare their standard of life to the US and it fares pretty well. Romney was just engaging in the xenophobe dog-whistling so common to the political right. The guy is conversant in French and knows the continent well; he's just pandering. Pay him no attention; it is just sad what the Republican base requires of its aspirants.
0

unreconstructedDec. 31, 2011 - 03:58PM JST

Romney was just engaging in the xenophobe dog-whistling so common to the political right.

The whole race card thing is so 2008. Unfortunately for Obama and the Dems most of the country understands that is about all you guys have left to peddle from the whole Hope and Change sham. Good luck with that. Long ways till November.
1

LagunaDec. 31, 2011 - 04:12PM JST

If corporations aren't made up of people exactly what are they made of, smith?

Ah, but what TYPE of people - the workers, those who create value, or the investors, those who provide the capital for the former to do the latter? Smith is not questioning the way the system works, I presume, though there is much to question regarding the relative weight of the voices these two very disparate groups currently possess in how the enterprise is run and to whom the profits accrue; the issue is in treating a legal entity as politically empowered individuals. History has shown repeated conflicts between the two groups, though fortunately, in our modern world, such showdowns have mostly been settled without violence. The world again is facing an imbalance between capital and labor; you can argue about what should be done to rectify this imbalance, but to pretend it doesn't exist is ostrich-like.

It is clear on which side of this issue Romney and his ilk lie.
-1

unreconstructedDec. 31, 2011 - 04:41PM JST

Ah, but what TYPE of people - the workers, those who create value, or the investors, those who provide the capital for the former to do the latter?

I find it odd and even amusing that even after an entire decade so many on the (relatively) more tech-savvy left remain oblivious to the fact that they too, as contributors/consumers in our modern, wired, interconnected global economy and information exchange, are collaborators in the very system they insist does not work and needs dismantling so it can be rebuilt along lines they either cannot uniformly describe ( look at the incomprehensible and conflicting OWS 'demands') or along vaguely Marxist lines derived from theories already thoroughly discredited by the advent of the modern electrical age and mass consumption.
-3

smithinjapanDec. 31, 2011 - 06:14PM JST

unreconstructed: "Nowhere did Romney say that."

He said "Ours is an opportunity nation" used to contrast, which means contrasting with another nation -- which he called 'Europe'. It was no doubt just another stupid gaffe he's made, so no surprise there.

"If corporations aren't made up of people exactly what are they made of, smith?"

Don't try to qualify the moronic statement he made they ARE people (not made up of people). I think we can both agree the amount of flak he took and continues to take for how out of touch with your average American he wants the votes from for that remark.

"You can't answer, I know..."

Already did, thank you, although I appreciate you throwing out a comment like that when you avoid answering so many yourself. Regardless, if there's a "can't" to be properly claimed by a poster on here, you win it -- for not being able to accept that now Mitt Romney is the front runner of a bunch of goofs who cannot possibly win in 2012. Again, it's not surprising the party can't field anyone but bigots and fools, but it's still humorous to watch you get worked up trying to deny it.
0

unreconstructedDec. 31, 2011 - 06:25PM JST

Romney is the front runner, in polls and in Smith's head, where he lives rent-free with George Bush and Sarah Palin.
-1

smithinjapanDec. 31, 2011 - 07:04PM JST

unreconstructed: "Romney is the front runner, in polls and in Smith's head, where he lives rent-free with George Bush and Sarah Palin."

What are you on about this time? Anyway, even if you're correct and those three are taking up a little space in my noggin, they take up far less than Obama... who's imploding yours. :) Hope 2012 will find you less obsessed.
0

SuperLibDec. 31, 2011 - 11:59PM JST

In some ways the US could learn to be more like Europe, and in some ways Europe could learn to be more like the US. But that's not very interesting news.
1

nandakandamandaJan. 01, 2012 - 12:33AM JST

What Europe has now they caught off America.

Who will be able to cure the disease first?
0

unreconstructedJan. 01, 2012 - 06:16PM JST

What Europe has now they caught off America

America forced countries like Greece to create hundreds of civil servant positions entitling those who hold them to retire at fifty ?

Do explain.