Bad “Newt(s)” and there’s more to this race than “Mitt(s”) the eye

February 1, 2012
Pardon the play in words. It’s been done so only to catch your attention and make you stop to immediately read this piece. The truth is, this is how politicians, political pundits and talk show hosts get their message across, using all the figures of speech they can muster and paying no attention to the substance but only to the hysteria, controversy and mileage they get out of it. And just in case you haven’t noticed, hyperbole seems to be their speech of choice. Even when they use a sprinkling of metaphors and similes, the analogy employed is still ridiculous and indefensible by all sane standards.
The GOP primary has seen so far the most vicious and destructive campaign ads in both Romney and Gingrich. And it’s all because winning at all cost seems to be the one and only driving force of their campaigns and that reason, fairness, honesty and sincerity have now lost their place in this political exercise.
And now, the Florida Republican primary voters have spoken, and the winner by a landslide is the inimitable Willard Mitt Romney – Mr. Bain Capital himself. With Mitt’s double-digit loss to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, came a do-or-die Romney Super PAC that was bound to flood Florida with unlimited negative campaign ads money can buy. True enough, the momentum that Newt gained from his South Carolina victory just got washed away eventually as soon as Mitt and his Super PAC launched their “carpet bomb” offensive against rival Newt. Having outspent the latter on TV ads by as much as 5-to-1, 90% of which were negative, Mitt clinched the 50 Florida delegates.
But even with his most recent win, Mitt has only gained so far 115 delegates, just 5% of the 1, 144 and still a long way to the nomination. Yet pundits are not letting him relish his victory. Quite the contrary, they warned him of the backlash in the fall of his negative campaign in the Sunshine State.
From an embarrassing defeat in South Carolina, Mitt Romney was catapulted back to the top of the polls shortly after heading to Florida. His Super PAC, with its campaign war chest always never running out, ensured their candidate’s victory, raising people’s fear that corporate money will have its tremendous influence in this 2012 election like it has never done before. With the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United, removing all restrictions on corporate cash in politics while allowing donors to remain anonymous, influence peddlers in Washington are having a ball.
It is appalling to think that legislators could be bound by a sense of gratitude to someone, let alone a corporation, for it is only to the sworn duties and responsibilities of their office they must adhere. It doesn’t make a difference either if it is wealthy private individuals who try to buy their politicians with their large campaign donations because they do so mostly for no other reason but to protect their interests and their business
Mitt Romney’s victory in Florida only reinforced the bitter truth that corporate and special interests money will be responsible in picking the winning legislators and government leaders in this year’s election.
And with those politicians in these corporations’ pockets, expect the worst from Wall Street, Big Pharma and giant Insurance Companies. Better yet, brace up, the worst is yet to come.