1.0 Introduction
Every four years the US presidential election cycle receives plenty of worldwide news coverage. But just how important are the changes in the US federal administration for US foreign policy objectives? Whatever their differences, US presidential candidates may share certain values that are reflected in national foreign policy. At the same time, certain US allies may have different expectations on US foreign policy than others. The Elections are normally held amidst vast sums of money spent on campaigning with very little regard on the impact of foreign issues that are prevailing in reality like global hunger, global recession, and global disease invasion, economic developments in underprivileged lands like Africa, Far East and the obvious war-torn Middle East areas that threaten global peace. The drama and fascination of the race for the white house eclipses even hitherto attractive Olympic Games going on in London. This haranguing of each other by the candidates is simply temporarily suspended for the candidates to hypocritically offer condolences to the Aurora film massacre and only to resume the drama even before the dead bodies of the victims have even had rigor motis set in.
The US constitution purposefully vests the incumbent President of the United States with extra-legal means to combat serious threats to national sovereignty; means to which allows each Presidency to dominate in foreign policy issues and is always reflected in the polling that takes place every four years that the elections are held. The current race is no exception. A neophyte into American governance might see the presidential office as the centre and locus of American government. Such an image certainly seems credible when we examine historical legacies of great presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Washington; figures that seemingly effected great change almost singlehandedly to American and the global world. Article II of the Constitution of the United States which delineates the powers of the executive branch further builds up this image. This observation becomes apparent with a cursory examination of Article II. It grants the president the position of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of United States and the ability to make treaties with foreign countries which is subjected to approval of two-thirds of the Senate amongst other far-reaching powers (US Constitution, Article. 2, sec. 1.)
This aspect of American politics makes the USA presidential race very important and thereby affecting the entire globe. Because of the importance of the office, the race tends to become a situation of “do or die” description of the nature of the campaign tactics that are meted out and the two major parties (Republicans and democrats) fight like cats and dogs do to out-spend, out do, out-campaign and even out–lie the other into the Oval office. The World is expecting a long, hard political fight between presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Democratic incumbent Barack Obama. So much is at stake: U.S. foreign policy, healthcare reform, and the tax code could all undergo radical changes if Romney wins. If Obama comes out on top, the legacy of the policies he’s championed in his first term would be established over the next four years, much to the chagrin of the republicans who are desperate to get back into power after George W Bush Jr failed miserably to win the hearts and minds of not only the Middle East allies and their supporters, but the American people as well. His invasion of Iraq on the false premise of accusing the now dead dictator Saddam Hussein of possessing Weapons of mass destruction, whilst holding hands with the now wealthy ex British Prime Minister Tony Blair from his Oil contracts after the war, the World never forgave him. American lives were needlessly lost as the obedient Navy, Infantry, air force and several afro-Caribbean new recruits lost their lives in a war that was never sanctioned by the United Nations. Americans can be deemed to be less intelligent than their counterparts around the globe and can be fooled once, but they have a patriotism that is second to none when it comes to defending their rights and freedoms and cannot be fooled again by any smooth Colin Powell’s and George W Bushes of today.
The purpose of this write-up is to encourage analysts to think through the likely impact of the 2012 election, the timing of which alone may help pin down certain parameters for the whole World as the World watches Mitt Romney’s surrogates try to crawl back into the Oval office through hook or crook.
Mitt Romney has been one of the most unattractive Republican presidential candidates in memory but fortunately possess the much required monetary capacity that the republicans lack to get the Chicago Senator Barack Hussein Obama from office for their capitalist and protection of the status quo of the rich. Despite the corrosive greedy culture of Wall Street, supported by Washington, the republicans have lurched onto the dismal performance that Barrack Obama has done as a result of the loss of the Senate power during mid-term elections that saw the democrats’ ability to pass many of their manifesto curtailed.
Mitt Romney has not been received with open arms by the Republican Party faithful. They would have preferred Rick Santorum or even the philanderer Gingrich had it not been for their lack of credible finances, image and capacity to outshine the suave but seemingly thick crocodile skin Barack Hussein Obama who has gone about his usual Chicago-type campaign strategy to be re-elected.
This short paper is meant to bring to light the hypocrisy of Mitt Romney’s surrogates who will only have themselves to blame if Mitt Romney is not successful come November 2012. They are running a campaign that should never be run whenever there is such a weak incumbent President like Barack Hussein Obama, seemingly handing the victory right into the incumbent’s lap. They are not telling Poor Governor Romney that he is not wearing any clothes.
1.1 Off-shore accounts
Mitt Romney is being touted by the republicans as a man who has been a patriotic and conscientious Citizen of America as governor of Massachusetts with a credible solid “American dream” believer. Sadly, it is already known that Mitt Romney stashes some cash in overseas tax havens. He’s already given 23 years’ worth of tax returns to Sen. John McCain when he was being vetted for Vice-president in 2008. McCain didn’t turn Mitt Romney over to the IRS but he decided to pick retarded Sarah Palin over him.
President Obama’s re-election campaign has continued to blast Mitt Romney for offshore financial holdings and renewed its call for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to release additional tax returns. The pressure started a week after news reports about a Bermuda company Mitt Romney owned and transferred to a trust in the name of his wife, Ann Romney, on the day before he became Massachusetts’ governor in 2003. The existence of the company, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., and other foreign assets including investments in the Cayman Islands and a Swiss bank account maintained until 2010 was not known to the public until Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011 in January. This anomaly, though legal is not expected to happen to true Patriotic Americans and no wonder John McCain opted for little-known Sarah Palin over him.
The Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in Mitt Romney’s securities filings as “a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.” It could be that Sankaty is an old vehicle with little importance, but Romney appears to have treated it rather carefully. The history is that Mitt Romney set it up in 1997, and then transferred it to his wife’s newly created blind trust on January 1, 2003, the day before he was inaugurated as Massachusetts’s governor. The director and president of this entity is R. Bradford Malt, the trustee of the blind trust and Romney’s personal lawyer.
Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an “excepted investment fund” that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return. Even after examining that return, the American public have no idea what is involved in this company. It is possible Romney’s wealth is even greater than previous estimates. While the Romney’s surrogates insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in “jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,” as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.
1,2 Bain Capital issues
That’s not the only money Romney has in tax havens. Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital, his finances are still deeply entangled with the private-equity firm that he founded and spun off from Bain and Co. in 1984. Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from the company. In early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Bain Capital is the heart of Romney’s fortune: it was the financial engine that created it. The mantra of Mitt Romney’s campaign surrogates is that Mitt Romney was a businessman who created tens of thousands of jobs, and Bain certainly did bring useful operational skills to many companies it bought. The Obama Campaign nevertheless point to several cases where Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs.
The logical question that Mitt Romney has failed to answer, shrouded and supported by his surrogates is why he was still receiving huge sums of Money long after he had “quit” his post with the organisation. This anomaly will hurt Romney come the presidential debates if the issue is raised. During the primary battle that Mitt Romany had with his fellow aspirants, he was able to dribble his way around but he might not be able to escape the Chicago-type of campaign that the seasoned Obama team will subject him to.
1.3 Tax Returns
Ironically, it was Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns, in November 1967, just ahead of his presidential campaign, thereby setting a precedent that nearly every presidential candidate since has either willingly or unwillingly been subject to. There’s no proof that Sen. Harry Reid is correct in asserting that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. But he has succeeded in keeping the political universe focused on Romney’s wealth and finances, and not the struggling economy. One aspect of Harry Reid’s assertion that Mitt Romney’s father would be embarrassed of his son is in direct reference to the fact that it was Mitt Romney’s father who set the precedent for personal financial disclosure to foster trust and transparency by presidential hopefuls. President Obama’s surrogates have made no attempts to distance themselves from Senator Harry Reid’s claim, that he got the information from an unnamed former Romney business associate at the private-equity firm Bain Capital. Instead, they’re turning it back on Romney, with several of the president’s campaign surrogates challenging Mitt Romney to clear the whole saga “in 10 seconds” by releasing years of his tax returns if he had nothing to hide.
Therefore, Mitt Romney’s personal tax rate is a particular point of interest to the Obama Campaign team. In 2010 and 2011, Mitt and Ann Romney paid $6.2 million in federal tax on $42.5 million in income. This is an average tax rate below 15%. Notably, it is substantially less than what majority of middle-income Americans pay on their income. On close scrutiny, Mitt Romney manages this low rate because he shrewdly takes his payments from Bain Capital as investment income, which is taxed at a maximum 15%, instead of the 35% he would pay on “ordinary” income, such as salaries or wages. Many tax experts argue that this form of remuneration Mitt Romney receives, known as carried interest, is really just a fee charged by investment managers, so it should instead be taxed at the 35% rate. Lee Sheppard, a contributing editor at the trade publication Tax Notes, whose often controversial articles are read widely by tax professionals, is nonplussed that the Obama campaign has been so listless on the issue of carried interest. “Romney is the poster boy, the best argument, for taxing this profit share as ordinary income,” says Sheppard.
1.4 Mormon Religion
In 2008 Presidential elections, then Senator Barack Hussein Obama received much criticism for sitting in Jeremiah Wright’s Church for over 20 years, being fed with poisonous and hateful preaching’s from the rogue preacher. The conservative press flanked by the disgraced Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity of the late show conservative TV show “Hannity” demonised the President’s associations. Surprisingly, they both have been very quiet on Mitt Romney’s religion: Mormonism. Born and raised in Michigan, Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). His family’s Mormon roots go back at least five generations. Romney’s late father, automobile executive George W. Romney, was a prominent member of the LDS church who served as governor of Michigan and ran for the 1968 GOP presidential nomination. Growing up in Michigan, Romney was the only Mormon in his school, he wrote in his 2004 book, “Turnaround.” After attending Stanford University for a year, he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year church mission to France.
Had Mitt Romney simply been a Mormon, it would still have raised similar concerns. Cunningly, Mitt Romney isn’t simply a Mormon. Mitt Romney is a Mormon High Priest who teaches that Jesus and Satan are brothers. While the conservatives now welcome Mitt Romney’s testimony about his beliefs as he has been invited to share since 2007, his lack of response to some questions is not a surprise because there are questions that Mormons tend to avoid. Mormons have a belief system that teaches that Jesus, the perfectly holy Creator to be the brother of Satan the perfectly evil creature and this should be an abomination that blasphemes Jesus.
In 2008 presidential Campaign, prominent evangelical leaders warned Sen. John McCain against picking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate, citing that their troops would abandon the Republican ticket on Election Day if that happened. They observed that Mitt Romney lacked trust on issues such as outlawing abortion and opposing same-sex marriage and because was a Mormon. “McCain and Romney would be like oil and water,” said evangelical novelist Tim LaHaye, “We aren’t against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won’t understand that.” The Rev. Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who speaks at evangelical events across the country, told The Washington Times in 2008 that he would not vote for McCain unless he ditched Mitt Romney for the Vice president ticket. He insisted that if John McCain picked Mitt Romney, the choice would alienate the entire evangelical community, where 62 million self-professing evangelicals in the Country half of them registered to vote, were going to be deeply saddened. John McCain heeded the plea. The rest is history.