Mitt and the Six Dwarfs

06 June 2011 |permalink | email article

The second Republican debate in the presidential primary season will offer candidates their first real challenge to debate Mitt Romney, the current front runner, a week from tonight at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. Romney, whose announcement of candidacy in the Granite State barely made the front page of the Union Leader, and was trumped by Sarah Palin’s politics of winging it to the dismay of the media,  could have a rough night.

The six dwarfs, with their number certain to climb by early summer, include Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Herman Kaine, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. Romney skipped the first debate May 5 in South Carolina sponsored by the Fox News Channel and the state GOP which had stringent rules.

This time organizers CNN, WMUR-TV and New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper have rules which candidates must take substantive steps toward a candidacy or have demonstrated an average of at least three percent in three national polls in April and May, or at two percent in the May University of New Hampshire poll. Palin told WMUR last week, “That’s quite soon. So no, I don’t think I’m going to be there.” With her invention of the “Wild Goose Chase Tour,” as the New York Times described it, she doesn’t need to bother.

Golf Summit

President Obama, who likes public courses, and House Speaker John Boehner who prefers private courses, are passionate golfers. The issue, when the two are scheduled to tee off on June 18, is getting both to get real about bipartisan talks over the budget and debt ceiling. Vice President Joe Biden is given credit by Boehner for progress in the talks. 

Quotable

“In the 18 months since the Great Recession, which ended in June 2009, U.S. annualized corporate profits rose 42 percent, to a record $1.68 trillion in the forth quarter of 2000,” Time magazine reported in its June 6 issue. Citizens for Tax Justice looked at 12 Fortune 500 companies from 2000-10 and found than on $171 billion on profits earned, their effective tax rate was negative-1.5 percent because of corporate loopholes, shelters and tax breaks.” This led New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow to opine that “Corporations aren’t hurting. They’re hoarding.” 

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