Frustrated GOP Supporter Hedges His Bets

Washington Post: In Michigan, Disgruntled Republican Donates To Romney, Giuliani - And Clinton

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Krissah Williams.

---

James Esshaki pilots his black Mercedes down the main strip of what's left of the high-end shopping district here, coming to one of the 11 buildings he owns. "Esshaki Properties for Lease" posters hang in the windows where mannequins modeling the latest fashions should be. For three months, it has been like this. No major stores, it seems, want to take a chance on Maple Avenue anymore.

"When you make a cold call to a national retailer and you mention you're in Michigan, they shut down," he said, turning the corner and eyeing a plot where he'd like to build, if the economy ever picks up.

As is the case for many businessmen in Michigan, a place that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney says is going through a "one-state recession," prospects are not good for Esshaki. The state's unemployment rate has risen to 7.4 percent, the highest in the nation, and an estimated 70,000 homes in nearby Detroit have risked foreclosure in the past two years.

In many ways, those are the least of the worries for Esshaki, a Detroit-born Iraqi American who has lost relatives to the war tearing through his ancestral homeland. As much as he wants an end to his state's economic hardships, he wants the war to stop and some semblance of order to return in Iraq.

"Things will change with a new president," he said. "Things will change."

Esshaki (pronounced e-SAH-key), 43, has been a Republican all his life and a staunch party supporter for a dozen years, giving more than $10,000 to local and national candidates. But this year, none of the Republicans running for president is speaking to his concerns. Iraq rarely comes up in debates or on the campaign trail, he said, and candidates began to talk about the economy only last week, after an exit poll in New Hampshire showed it to be the most pressing issue on voters' minds.

"I'm frustrated," Esshaki said, as talk of the New Hampshire primary's outcome buzzed on the flat screen in his spacious office. "All of the Republican candidates are just lacking something."

For months, social issues, illegal immigration and anti-terrorism efforts were the dominant issues in the campaign. For those same months, Esshaki watched his expenses mount. Oil hit $100 a barrel, and gas prices crept above $3 per gallon. The value of the dollar declined, and his global buying power shrank. As automakers laid off more than 100,000 workers over the past two years, he felt the sting of yet more bad news.

If Michigan's economy is not righted, the value of Esshaki's $30 million real estate portfolio - which he built by taking a loan against his mother's house 22 years ago, then leveraging his life's savings with each subsequent purchase - could be in jeopardy. Last year, his rental revenue sank 15 percent.

Some of Esshaki's tenants in the downtown district of designer boutiques here watched their sales dip. They responded by threatening to leave his buildings for cheaper spaces. He made concessions, offering free rent for a month.

"I'm working harder," he said. "Five years ago, if a client called and wanted to see a space, I'd send the maintenance guy or the secretary to open the space," he said. "No more. I'm going out there. I know I can close the deal."

He's less sure that the Republicans running for president can close the deal. Esshaki has not heard anything that leads him to believe that they have plans to keep the country from going into a recession, and he has been dismayed that they haven't focused more on the economy.

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani proposed a tax-cut package. Romney promised to restore jobs lost to globalization. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has pledged to extend President Bush's tax cuts.

"Tax cuts are not a solution," Esshaki said. "They are only one part."

He doesn't know all the answers; he just knows he hasn't heard them yet.

Esshaki's parents immigrated to Michigan from Baghdad in the 1950s, and he was raised in one of the city's tightknit Arab American enclaves. He can speak a little Arabic and networks regularly with other Iraqi American businessmen. His family is Iraqi Chaldean, a Christian group that has settled among the 1.2 million residents of Oakland County, where Birmingham is located. They are mostly are well-to-do Catholics who tend to vote Republican and for the most part are allied with the party's fiscal and social platforms.

Esshaki has always sided with Republicans because of their business stances: lower income taxes, smaller government and tax breaks for business owners. On foreign policy, he enthusiastically supported Bush's effort to bring down Saddam Hussein, whom Esshaki viewed as a threat to the world. When weapons of mass destruction were not found, Esshaki felt deceived.

"The war in Iraq started with a lot of facts. As they unraveled, these facts are no longer facts. It's almost a fabricated war," Esshaki said. "We have lost faith in [President Bush] as a community, as Chaldeans, as Arab Americans. We have members in our family that have lost lives, that have been hurt."

Chaldeans made up about 6 percent of Iraq's population before the war, but the community has since been almost entirely killed or chased from the country, according to news reports. One of Esshaki's elderly aunts and an uncle died in the midst of the fighting.

Esshaki puts the blame on Bush, rather than the Republican Party as a whole. He is not sure the GOP will retain the White House, but he is not voting for a Democrat. He doesn't agree with the Democratic Party's economic priorities or its calls for a swift move to exit an already destabilized Iraq. So he has been searching for a Republican to back.

Playing pundit along with the suits on his television, he parsed the front-runners.

"McCain's going to run out of money. ... I don't think Mitt Romney is passionate. I need to see that. ... He almost looks like a movie star that's playing the role of a president.

"[Mike] Huckabee seems honest and humble," Esshaki went on, though he later said the former Arkansas governor's proposal to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax is crazy.

Esshaki favors Giuliani, with some apprehensions, because of his tenacity. "He was a prosecutor. His track record speaks for itself. He broke up the Mafia in New York," he said. "That's tough."

Esshaki, who volunteers once a week as a sheriff's deputy and dreamed as a kid of being a police officer, thinks it will take a tough guy to stick it out in Iraq and ensure that an effective government is restored. Giuliani, who has built his candidacy on fighting terrorism, makes him believe that.

"Everything becomes, do you believe they can do it?" Esshaki said.

Giuliani is barely competing in this state, and Esshaki thinks the candidate's strategy of skipping the first primaries could cost him the nomination. Many in this corner of Michigan, only a few miles from the big lakeside homes of Bloomfield Hills, where Romney grew up and went to high school, lean toward Romney. They know the Romney name because his father was governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.

The Giuliani campaign sent Esshaki an invitation to a donor's banquet Monday in Detroit, about 30 minutes south of Birmingham, but the candidate has held only five campaign events in the state. Romney and McCain have held four times as many.

"Should I jump ship? Everyone wants to bet on a winning horse," Esshaki said. "My problem is I'm so loyal. You watch your guy and hope it works out."

He will vote for Giuliani, but he is spreading his donations around. This month, he wrote $1,200 checks to Romney's and Giuliani's campaigns.

Because Esshaki thinks there is a good chance they could both sink, he wrote a check to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), too. She is the only Democrat on the ballot in Michigan because of restrictions placed on the state by the Democratic National Committee. Last summer, Esshaki gave her campaign $1,000, and he went to a donor's banquet and shook her hand. In an 8-by-10 photo leaning atop his cherry file cabinets, Esshaki and Clinton are standing side by side. That image is surrounded by photos of Esshaki grinning with Bush years ago.

Esshaki is hedging his bets this time. He made the decision to give to Clinton when a Democratic business associate called and asked him to write a check to her campaign. He figured he would help a friend and still come out a winner if his team lost.

"I'm a businessman," he said. "Whatever you do ... you need to diversify at some point."

[prinzowhales]

Note Mr. Esshaki''s story, when Bush showed up, Christians got chased out of Iraq...Note, when the British and their backers showed up, many Jews left Iraq because of fear generated by Zionist attacks to get them to immigrate to Israel...These were communities thousands of years old!

Bush said a few years back that it was good that America was exporting jobs! He is for open borders and amnesty...Congress has sat on it''s Republican and Democratic hands and refused to do anything to secure the borders or instruct Bush to fulfill his obligation to protect the borders of the United States.

If you export your manufacturing base--and that is precisely what the New York financiers have done--then you make yourself susceptible to manipulation by international financial forces--of the very kind that the World Bank and IMF use against Third World countries.

Americans, snouts stuck in the trough of the info-tainment industry, have neither the knowledge or will to correct this...even as David Rockefellar boasts in his autobiography that ''he does not always do what is best for the US'' and seeks a world government--an end to the US...even as Hucksterbee''s foreign affairs expert has written that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights should be scrapped in favour of government by "elite consensus".

[samthetvcat]

"I''m a businessman," he said. "Whatever you do ... you need to diversify at some point."

He likes the aggressive candidates who everybody thinks are the most susceptible to dirty dealings. Most of us see that as a negative - different strokes . . .

[cfin5]

Americans, snouts stuck in the trough of the info-tainment industry, have neither the knowledge or will to correct this...even as David Rockefellar boasts in his autobiography that ''''he does not always do what is best for the US'''' and seeks a world government--an end to the US...even as Hucksterbee''''s foreign affairs expert has written that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights should be scrapped in favour of government by "elite consensus".

Posted by Prinzowhales at 11:26 AM : Jan 13, 2008-------------Well put. I see this election not as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. It is in fact an ideological war between students of the Constitution and students of "SAUL ALINSKY". Clinton and Obama are the leading Alinsky socialists with Huckabee and McCain as their lapdogs whether they realize it or not. Google this dude "Saul Alinsky" with his "bloodless socialist takeover" tactics and you will understand the how''s and why''s of PR/PC debate strategy........Like General Patton reading Rommel''s book on military strategy,.....and then went and kicked his sorry canassticator. Conservatives need to go and do likewise!

[b-easy63]

Loyalty can be honorable--or it can be the most dangerous and misplaced thing in the world. If ever you want to see the results of misplaced loyalty--just look at kids from unhappy households where neither party wants a divorce or pursues it--but they raise their kids in all of that unhappiness and hell.

The Republican party is like a woman caught in a hellish marriage but with no skills of her own to survive. Such a woman is scared to leave, so as her husband cheats on her, beats her, spends the money on liquor or gambling, or verbally abuses her, as he makes the family feel like scum and turns them against each other and they live in fear of him--sometimes even if he abuses or molests their own children--the wife quietly turns her head and either softly accepts all that is happening or defiantly denies it and says it ain''t so.

so here is the bad news--ignoring the damage of a bad relationship does not make it less so---sooner or later--the truth comes out--the kids grow up and they tell all --they seek help, they want to move on and they vow to never, ever accept such a situation in their future (many will, though)

[b-easy63]

The point is this: Republicans can dismiss the lies, the war, the corruption, the disrespect of law and the Constitution--but those who wake up are watching for their chance--we don''t need what George and the Republicans have given us for the past 7 years. Not the lies for wars, not the fake boom with no one to pay back for all the debt, not the mistreatment at Walter Reeds, the ignoring of subpoenas, the outing of agents, the advocacy for torture, the immunity for war crimes or any of the other stuff. Stuff sooooo bad, this entire country will need a hot bath post 2008.

And we don''t need people so loyal to the Bush regime, that they doom the rest of us and the world to the horror of more of the same in the next chapter. Wake up Esshaki. This is not your old Republican party. It was taken over by something else--loyalty means nothing if you do not apply principles and thought to it--for fiscal responsibility and small government? Since when does running up a huge debt with no taxes, starting wars and wiretapping Americans constitute as small government or fiscal responsible. Only a fool does not get out of the pot of water when the temperature changes--because to stay would mean to boil.....

[excoachken]

If he thinks his $$$ is going to help Iraq, I have a bridge he can donate $$$ to. He should just put it in a plain white envelope and I will personally deliver it for him.

[omega39-2009]

----Well put. I see this election not as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. It is in fact an ideological war between students of the Constitution and students of "SAUL ALINSKY"
Posted by cfin5

Of course we have those that will parrot the propaganda of socialism while insisting the rich deserve everything while the rest should be left to the forces of economic Darwinism. I have news for you cfin5, history is littered with examples of this sort of thinking and to a country, the rich eventually get their comeuppance.

[prinzowhales]

Alinsky...Straus...two sides of a dialectic run by the Oligarchy. Webster Tarpley, who has his own eggs to fry, pointed out the Brzenzski faction people have Obama in their pockets and points out that Russia is the real object of attack by his school...

Russia was pulled back from the abyss that awaits us by Putin''s direct action against the finance capitalilsts of Wall Street and the City and we need the same kind of nationalistic leadership here, one that puts AMERICA FIRST! not the interests of organized usury--the Bank of England...the FED...the IMF and the World Bank.

[jlwesley]

Hedging his bets????

Being stupid is more like it, he has to remember what has put Michigan in the shape that it is in. Too many years of Demycraps controlling it. To many Demycrap supported vote buying entitlements, to many generations of welfare recipients that refuse to work and only leech on the economy.

Supporting Billary is not going to improve that at all. Until people in this country come to realize where the grease comes from that makes the wheels of this country run, we will continue down this unending slide to socialism.

[cfin5]

joshdestardi,.....What is the end result of those that hold to Alinsky''s nihilist philosophy or Leo Strauss''s nihilist philosophy taught by Nietzsche?.......Nothing but the road to the same destination. Oh, feel free to add Strauss to my previous post and any other enemy to our Constitution!

[prinzowhales]

Omega39 "...the rich eventually get their comeuppance."
-------------
Now, would be a good time....

[cfin5]

This is a good standard of judging what a pet philosophy can do to our founding fathers gift to us as Americans namely our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The following was quoted by Cicero in 42 B.C...........
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."

[iceman_1960]

"Negative campaigning is nothing new.

In the 1828 presidential race, Andrew Jackson"s opponents accused him of cannibalism.

The Whigs claimed that Democrat Martin van Buren wore the finest ladies" corsets under his suit. He ate off golden utensils and spent a fortune on diamonds, rubies, French vases and imported beauty creams, all charged to U.S. taxpayers.

The 1844 race was enlivened by the interesting claim that Henry Clay had broken every one of the ten commandments.

In 1876 the Republicans declared that Democrat Samuel Tilden had sy*philis and was an unprincipled drunkard scheming to bring back slavery. Tilden"s people then claimed that Hays had gone insane and shot his mother.

In 1948 Lyndon Johnson, running for the Senate against Coke Stevenson, instructed a campaign worker: "Go out there and tell "em Coke was caught having s*ex with a farm animal." The worker was aghast. "But you know that"s not true!" "Of course it"s not true. That"s not the point. Tell it anyway, and make him deny it."

- from "Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren"t Fair (And What We Can Do About it)," by William Poundstone

(Excerpt quoted in The Oprah Magazine, February 2008 issue)

[iceman_1960]

"Esshaki has always sided with Republicans because of their business stances"

[omega39-2009]

He''s probably curveball''s brother, spitball.

[hungry1968]

VOTE SMART, VOTE Hillary ''''08!!!

Posted by metroduck75 at 12:45 PM : Jan 13, 2008



Haven''t we had enough of the Cheney / Bush regime?

Why would you want "Cheney lite"?

[prinzowhales]

The Bush-Clinton connection goes much deeper than their drug and money laundering partnership at Mena, Arkansas...M3 expanded beyond productivity all through the Clinton presidency...and, just like Reagan, he benefited politically from it.

Many of the seeds of destruction that are blossoming today under Bush43 were planted under Bush41 and Clinton--Barbara''s ''other son''. Trade treaties like NAFTA were signed under Clinton...Illegal immigration continued unabated...the police state was expanded...and Americans got used to accepting lies from their government concerning events like the attacks at Waco and OKC. Bubbles are a lot of fun on the way up...its no wonder Clinton is liked by some...but when they pop...things are not so nice.

[cbscensorsus]

BOYCOTT ADVERTISERS WHO SUPPORT A CORRUPT SYSTEM , YES

THEY CHEAT US WE FIGHT,
STARTING WITH THE TREASONIST PRESS (NETWORKS) ALL EMPLOYEES

THE PEOPLE (THE PRESS) WHO ARE SUPPOSE TO BE THE VIGILANT EYE
SECURING OUR REPUBLIC, HAVE BETRAYED US (TREASON)



JUST TODAY I HEARD ON ABC HOW THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE DEBATE OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE WON A PRIMARY STATE

AFTER WHAT 5 STATES
WE ONLY HEAR FROM THE CRIMINALS
WHO THE CRIMINAL PRESS WANTS


ALL DURING THIS ELECTION YEAR PROCESS WE HAVE HEARD
THE BAR CHANGE
WHO HAS THE MOST MONEY
THE TOP 5 CANDIDATES
THE TOP 4 CANDIDATES
THE TOP 3 CANDIDATES

AND NOW ABC
AFTER WHAT 5 STATES
WE ONLY HEAR FROM THE CRIMINALS
WHO THE CRIMINAL PRESS WANTS

AND WE ARE SUPPOSE TO BELIEVE THE BEST CANDIDATE
FOR THE REPUBLICANS IS A COUPLE OF MOB BOSSES

OR A DEMOCRAT (JOHN Mc CAIN)

GET READY FOR REAL WAR PEOPLE
IT IS COMING

BUY FOOD GUN and AMMUNITION..

[prinzowhales]

curse914--They also control the very mechanism in which the collapse occurs--the echanges...it was no accident that Winston Churchill was on hand at the NYSE to witness the Crash first hand. Bush even has a plunge protection team to keep the markets from falling on their arses...or to boost them.

The Regime has already spent enough in industrial production and labour to have built enough infrastructure for solar power to put a huge dent in our oil imports...but that would have been for the people, not the Corporatists who profit when the price of oil ascends.

[cs4466]

Bring back the CLINTONS, Bring back the ECONOMY!!!

VOTE SMART, VOTE Hillary ''''''''08!!! WOOHOO!

[rohink-2009]

CBS doing it''s job.

[aljack3]

What a scoop! A businessman that donates to both political parties. This guy must have been really hard to find. Way to go WaPost. Keep these hard hitting pieces coming.

[skyk-2009]

Clintons'''' contribution to the economy was to do nothing. Much as Greenspan who saw the Tech Bubble coming and yet he did not use his bully pulpit to inform the sucker day traders who ended up taking it in the shorts.

The Economy is the laborer, not the politician. Clinton continued the downward spiral that Reagan started with regards to free trade, deregulation and the bleeding of American manufacturing. A bubble is a faux economy that enables the investor class who in essence do nothing, and who produce nothing to wring money from the talent and skills of the laborer. The investor classes advantage is having control of the means to production; the machines, land, and raw material. Do not forget is takes a laborer to extract that raw material, bring it to the factory and shape it into something of value.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by curse914 at 03:18 PM : Jan 13, 2008
+ report abuse

Now you may be able to convince some Red Neck of this but most intelligent people KNOW he was the ONLY President to submit a balanced budget to congress. Right now that would mean a savings to the American People of MILLIONS of dollars. Clinton would NOT have gotten bogged down in Iraq, add BILLIONS more tax dollars and it''s pretty safe to bet that IF we continue Clintons Economic Policies we have a Surplus to help with the credit mess. You can say what you want but the Clinton Economic Plan made the 90''s possible.

[ih2005]

Mr. Esshaki ought to do his homework. He can begin by checking what the findings are about FairTax. What''s CRAZY is a businessman like Esshaki who does NOT KNOW the tremendous BENEFITS the FAIRTAX would afford:
http://snipr.com/fairtaxslate

[jumkey]

The "fair" tax? Is that the one that gives tax breaks to people who make over $200 per year and raises the taxes on the rest of us?

Sorry, jh2005, I''m not interested in paying more in taxes.

[denisl1]

We each seem to have our own major issue(s) that make their choice for President seem like the best one. My question is: Would someone tell me why we should NOT elect Ron Paul?

The rest, with Richardson out and Kucinich low in the polls, seem to be talking crazy talk about our military adventures in the Middle East. Additionally, no one else seems to understand the problems with the economy, inflation, and out of control deficit spending. Inflation is going to eat us alive, as it has already started to do so. Do you really believe that the REAL inflation rate last year, the rate that was used by the government for Social Security check increases this month, was 2.3%?

One can not talk about tax cuts without ALSO talking about cutting spending. We have a $9 trillion debt (double since 2000) that must be paid so we can afford Social Security and Medicare. The interest payments will go sky high when we begin to fight inflation with higher Federal Reserve bank rates.

And we must stop inflation or everyone''s life savings will go down the tubes, along with the middle class, like what has happened to the middle class in most countries south of our border. Inflation is coming, unless Republicans begin to understand the seriousness of runaway deficits and spending. And start educating the country. A Democratic President will surely not fight inflation like Volcker and Reagan did!

Please vote Ron Paul and save the country from bankruptcy abroad and at home!

[element51]

b-easy63...Man what a fabulous post. Seldom do I see a post on here that is so well put together. I actually got goose bumps as I read it. Your statement that this is not the old Republican Party is so right on. Before Bush was elected the first time, (well maybe elected isn''t the right word) I did a lot of research on him and I told everyone that he was going to destroy the country if he was elected and people laughed at me and called me lots of dirty names. Well, you can come to your own conclusions. Some will defend bush as if he were the right hand of God. The rest of us have seen the truth.

[l8c6]

My question is: Would someone tell me why we should NOT elect Ron Paul?

Posted by DenisL1

Because he''s a crackpot corporate libertarian who in conjunction with his membership in the republican neo con party has turned the United States into a global hoe house for sale to the highest bidders. Who gives a da*m*n about the working citizens of the United States has been the secret motto of the corporate libertarian republican neo cons. Ron Paula, a long standing member of this apostacy.

[cfin5]

Posted by veteran71 at 06:47 PM : Jan 13, 2008---------------Precisely why Fox didn''t want Dr. Paul included in the debate. They know that Hannity would be discredited,.....and rightly so. "l8c6" puts everyone in the same box and should know that there is no other way to run for the Presidency. That is so out! I look at each candidate regardless of party affiliation. And that result clearly indicates the best of both parties are lower tier candidates. If Ron Paul was a democrat, it would have changed NOTHING in bias way to help him be the next President. He is very much and proven to be the best AMERICAN currently as a candidate.

[realpatriot1]

michaelt302,

Actually, it''s pretty good being a liberal right now because the decrease in violence and the insistence by conservatives that everything is peachy only gives credence to the effort to have the Iraqis defend themselves.

Bush is now saying that he''ll leave it up to Petraeus to decide when to pull our troops out and in the same breath says we may have to postpone the previously promised reductions. That doesn''t sound like success to me.

[scalliwagrx8]

Haha!!!! It is kinda funny to see a repulican actually get a dose of bad medicine from the people he supported.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by michaelt302 at 07:29 PM : Jan 13, 2008

Michael still lives in the hologram the Neocons keep spinning.

[homespunlady]

Esshaki''s learning that WITHOUT dollars in the hands of those LESS fortunate the wealthy investor will join them when things collapse.
I suggest he check out what Ron Paul has to say rather than trying to position himself for special favors from the "expected" winner.

Some evidence and a CLUE of what the REAL problem with the economy is and where it is heading comes from a 15 Dec NYT article by David Cay Johnson.
HE reported on the GROWING CONCENTRATION of WEALTH AT THE TOP

"The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.

Earlier reports, based on tax returns, showed that in 2005 the top 10 percent, top 1 percent and fractions of the top 1 percent enjoyed their greatest share of income since 1928 and 1929."

Take Note of those DATES - they are the trigger years to the GREAT DEPRESSION.

[homespunlady]

If the MAJORITY of the citizens have NO money to spend in the shops Esskasi built OBVIOUSLY nobody will want to open a business that will go under.

If the MAJORITY of citizens actually HAD money to spend - that''s prosperity.

If most of the wealth is tied up in a TINY few hands the ONLY prosperous businesses will be in catering to that TINY few but Obviously "economy of scale" cannot take place and the few can only buy so much.

Then their wealth is SET ASIDE to accumulate rather than stimulate the economy.

Concentration of more than 28 percent or so of TOTAL wealth has historically led to major downturns of whatever country it has occurred in with out massive and economically risky "programs" to prop it up.

The Great Depression was brought about because of concentration and manipulation of that wealth. It took a HUGE infrastructure building and WW II buildup with all it''s rationing to get us out of it.

[homespunlady]

It''s the FLOW of money not it''s accumulation that keeps an economic engine running.
When it bottlenecks in the hands of a few then the flow slows an the engine sputters to a stop.

[iceman_1960]

"My question is: Would someone tell me why we should NOT elect Ron Paul?"
- Posted by DenisL1 at 05:39 PM : Jan 13, 2008

He"s too short.

[iceman_1960]

Also, Ron Paul is a gynecologist.

You want his hand on the nuclear button ?



(You didn"t say they had to be a good reasons.)

[tylenol6]

To all Clinton kool aid drinkers
Where do you think Hillary got that $100 million campaign donations from? She got it from the military
complex that wants to keeps the wars going. Do you think they gave it to her because she is cute? They expect Hillary to return the favor and keep these wars going. Hillary WILL NOT END THE WAR.
John McCain, another warmonger dosen''t care if our troops are in Iraq for 100 years. The crazy thing is
the american people would vote for this IDIOT. Like
Ron Paul said, the U.S. is BANKRUPT. WAKE UP PEOPLE...

[krisd999-2009]

"fascism is faaaar worse than so-called "socialism"."

Buddy, in case you don''t know, fasism IS socialism! Hitler was democraticaly elected and his party was called National Socialist, all for the good of the people. Communism, Socialism, Fasism are basicaly the same thing. Monopoly control of capital, the means of production. There is only an illusion of private property, the state controls all. Most of the Communist Manifesto has already been implemented in America and the noose is tightening.

[brianbwb-2009]

"On foreign policy, he enthusiastically supported Bush''s effort to bring down Saddam Hussein, whom Esshaki viewed as a threat to the world. When weapons of mass destruction were not found, Esshaki felt deceived.
"The war in Iraq started with a lot of facts. As they unraveled, these facts are no longer facts. It''s almost a fabricated war," Esshaki said. "We have lost faith in [President Bush] as a community, as Chaldeans, as Arab Americans. We have members in our family that have lost lives, that have been hurt."

And still he votes for the fascists, I guess he, like the Republicans feel that his dead loved ones aren''t worth losing profit over.

As Bugs Bunny says "what a maroon"...

[brianbwb-2009]

"More on Ron Paul''''s voting record (or lack thereof) can be found here:
http://projects.washingtonpost.
com/congress/members/p000583/votes/"
Posted by TheGateway1

We may disagree on most everything else, but on this one, I''m with the Gate-man. Paul is not what America needs right now.

By the way Gateway1, you forgot to mention his most loyal campaign contributors, the kkk, aryan nations, the Michigan militia, and other virulent right wing neo nazi groups.

[antoniof123]

Buddy, in case you don''''t know, fasism IS socialism! Hitler was democraticaly elected and his party was called National Socialist, all for the good of the people. Communism, Socialism, Fasism are basicaly the same thing. Monopoly control of capital, the means of production. There is only an illusion of private property, the state controls all. Most of the Communist Manifesto has already been implemented in America and the noose is tightening.

Posted by krisd999 at 02:30 AM : Jan 14, 2008

You must be getting sound bites from the right wing conservative crowd. Hitler was an occults sorry he was fanatical in his views in fact he got the Pope to bless his troops. Just because you give your self the name National Socialist doesn''t make it true the fact is fascism became so popular because it was intense hate for the Soviet Union. A little fact that the right wing tends to leave out.

[glossypan]

This story makes the case for campaign finance reform. When the electorate perceives - probably correctly - that contributors will be treated better by the elected than non-contributors, action must be taken.
Support public campaign financing, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.

[perception5]

Let hope the folks in Michigan vote for "Mr. Fixer" .................aka Mitt Romney.

No one else running has the knowledge or experience that''s needed in Washington DC today

then Mitt Romney...........................GO MITT !

[missingamerica]

"Michigan...Mitt Romney says is going through a "one-state recession...".

Huh. Does Romney believe that only one state is in a recession, or is Romney only smart enough to think about one state at a time?

Either way, not good for someone who will be responsible for the well-being of all 50 states and a number of territories as well as D.C.

[missingamerica]

Imagine a nation with no natural resources being able to rally its citizens into such productivity, and the stark contrast with thier sister cities here in the U.S. with thier Retirment Home
politicians, dead beat depressed not able to run as
simple a thing as a campaign bus, what a stark contrast in leadership

Posted by fuzzybear9 at 09:38 AM : Jan 14, 2008

If you''re referring to Japan, interestingly enough we rebuilt their economy for them.

Unfortunately, over the intervening decades we''ve become burdened with a cult of business and political leaders who don''t understand that permitting CEO pay to reach 200, 300, 400 and more times their average workers pay or allowing the top 10% of America to get more of America''s income than all of the rest of America combined is nothing less than cultivating an overclass of parasites.

Parasites who sap America''s strength in their egocentrical pursuit of more, more, more simply so they can pleasure themselves as they ponder their placement on the various Forbes lists of the megawealthy...

[ov442]

Trust me, Mitt Romney is nothing like his father the former Michigan Governor.
He wont succeed at anything worthwhile. Its always easy to succeed in business if your a snake with a brain. Unfortunately for GWB, he doesnt have a brain.

[giantrobot2]

Alert *** Alert *** Alert ***

Question:
Would you like to own a brand new high definition 60" LCD / Plasma TV with reclining chair with large cup holder for your cold beverage of your choice?

Answer:
Huckabee! He is the ONLY candidate out of the presidential field willing to implement the "Fair-Tax" system.

Look at your paycheck and see how much they are taking out of your paycheck for taxes... go ahead go look at it now.

Now take the cost of a brand new 60" LCD / Plasma high def TV and reclining chair (& cup holder) and divide that number by how much taxes they are taking out.

Example:
$3,000 (TV cost, chair) / $325 tax holding each week = 8 weeks

That''''s it, only 8 weeks to get this great deal!!!

But if you vote for any other candidate it will take years to save up for this! Say you put away $10 each week, well that''''s 4 years!

So if you want to become poorer then vote for McCain, Romney, Thompson, Guiliani, Paul, Clinton, Obama, Edwards..... but if you want to become richer vote for Huckabee!

[samsel3]

We can all talk about the past, but what about now and the future ? Presently the CNP Council for National Policy is planning your future. This secretive organisation of several hundred of the richest men in the USA put Bush & Cheney in office to accomplish their global agenda. In September 2007 they met again in Salt Lake City. Cheney & Mitt Romney were keynote speakers. Romney wants their backing. The CNP wants to continue their agenda in global market control for BIG OIL & allied industry in the next election. National media outlets are owned by their members. Who will expose them? Who will stop their insanity and destruction of constitutional freedom ? Who will stop their misuse of the military to promote their global agenda? Paul Wolfowitz,Don Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, George Bush, Richard Cheney, Eliot Cohen. Zalmay Khalilzad, Steve Forbes, Donald Kagan, Pete Rodman, Henry S Rowen, Dan Quale, William J.Bennett, Jeb Bush, they are all members of the PNAC Project for a New American Century.