Romney, Petraeus, and Trump

It is interesting to note that one of the candidates for U.S. Secretary of State under Donald Trump has been convicted of the same crimes he attributed to Secretary Clinton.  How is it that while he declaimed over and over about her handling of classified materials, he is actually considering nominating someone guilty of mishandling the same types of materials.  I am going to guess that he really has no problems with the issue, and that it was just a good campaign tool.  If you need any proof of Romney's assertion that Trump is a fraud and a con-man, then look no further.

Speaking of Romney, and what will no doubt become an infamous photo of his dinner with Trump, I hope any consideration of why even meeting Trump was on the drawing board is for the same reason after her hard campaign against Obama, Hillary Clinton accepted the position, one reason being because it was for the good of the republic.  I could be wrong, but I don't recall Clinton issuing any sort of apology over what was said during the campaign, and I truthfully hope that Romney is not required to make an apology prior to accepting a nomination (if it comes down to it).  Romney spoke the truth, and it is noble to put aside differences for the good of the republic, but he should not be asked to back down from those comments.  If he does chose to do so, then I hope working for Trump doesn't eat away at his self-esteem, having taken back his words, when Trump invariably tosses him under the bus, there won't be anything left.  He is in a difficult position, but not an unheard of position, but his first priority should be to his emotional self, and if Trump chooses to force an apology prior to nominating him, then I truly hope he tells Trump to get lost.  Colin Powell is a good man who was tossed under the bus by the administration he served (and he didn't even need to eat crow first), but it still cost him greatly.  I would hate to see this recent history repeat itself on another, especially one so out-spoken in his own party about the qualities of the President-elect.

Corporate Culture

Not that anyone really wants to hear anything on politics, but there is something about Romney that is bothering me, so I figure it may be worth my while to spell it out. He has been claiming that he hasn't had any direct input into activities at Bain Capital since 1999 -- the precise month, I don't recall, but it isn't relevant to my purposes in this post. Whether he was directly responsible for any activity there or not, since he founded the organization, he also established the culture of that corporation, and by that I mean a set of acceptable business practices and a standard operating procedure. Claiming that he didn't sign off directly on any off-shoring of jobs formerly done in the United States after 1999, doesn't relieve him of the responsibility that he established a corporate culture at Bain Capital where such activities are considered perfectly acceptable, and perhaps even encouraged if they can be proven to be profitable. Currently there is a big hubbub in Illinois over closing down a profitable business, moving it to China, and then making even more money on it. So the culture at Bain isn't just to move failing businesses to China, but ones that are succeeding as well. Amid a poor economy, moving jobs that are already yielding profits in order to make even more money is pretty heartless, and perhaps it is why I really don't care for Ayn Rand's philosophy, and why I don't mind a bit of regulation, since I won't trust business to do what is best for anyone but the current CEO. This sort of decision isn't one you can regulate, but I think it reflects poorly on the corporate culture established by Mitt Romney, and maybe even gives a clue as to what sort of culture he would plan to install in the executive branch during his administration.

If the man created a company that doesn't look at the human costs of its business decisions, then how can anyone expect him to be a successful president when it doesn't appear that he cares about the human costs of decisions placed before him, whether the people who form the ranks of the military, those who have retired, or those on welfare.