What is it that’s so creepy about Willard? It’s because Romney gets a certain look on his face when he thinks he’s said something overwhelmingly clever; it’s like he expects a certain reward. You see this a lot with right wingers; it’s something hardwired into their brains. It’s occurred to me where I first saw this: his expression looks just like the one the old WB animators would put on the faces of the two human characters that Bugs Bunny always encountered stranded on the desert island. It’s when the one castaway would look at the other and see him as a pork chop; it’s insatiable hunger, barely contained anticipation and utter madness all rolled into one facial expression.
It’s probably not true that when Romney kisses a baby he’s tasting the little dumpling. It’s really absolute power and complete domination over others that he craves. If he had absolute power, he probably would be in competition to break the record of Emperor Caligula. Bush showed the same behavior, but he was at least able to hide it in campaign appearances, and his handlers kept his meds up, most of the time. Romney has even less discipline than Bush. I never thought I’d say that about somebody with a real shot at being President, unless you count VP candidates.
Mitt admitted today that his income tax rate is “probably around” 15%. How could somebody who obsesses about lowering the tax rate to zero not know to the penny how much he pays? Maybe because it‘s much less than that? He says he’ll release his tax returns after the primaries are over. Romney says his rate is so low because his income is almost entirely from “investments made a long time ago.” As if the ancient history aspect of it made this okay. (that creepy grin again)
Mitt said he makes “a little” from giving speeches that gets taxed the way you or I get taxed. Try $375,000 last year, - that’s just “a little” to Mitt, and it probably really is to him. That amount alone is enough to put him at the threshold of the One Percent, but it’s pocket change if you’re in the top one tenth of one percent. Mitt probably never had an income that low since that first day out of Harvard Business when he became the CEO of Bain Capital. At least not after he looted his first company.
Reports are that Bain under Romney took tens of millions in government subsidies as they played local governments against one another in a vain attempt to save jobs. He also had a habit of making a deal to buy a company, and then would “talk down the deal” after all other bidders went home. Romney’s Bain would find fault with what were really just nitpicking details to get a much better price, knowing that it would panic other potential buyers if they pulled out. These are just a couple of the things you do to get an 85% return on investment. Every time that worked, you can imagine that creepy little smile.