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Obama the Kitty-Cat Who Roared
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/10/22/the_kitty-cat_who_roared_98824.html
By Victor Davis Hanson October 22, 2009
President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion - only later to meow like a little kitty.
Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock ticks -- and Guantanamo isn't close to being shut down. It once was easy for candidate Obama to deplore George W. Bush's supposed gulag. Now it proves harder to decide between the bad choice of detaining non-uniformed terrorist combatants and the worse ones of letting them go, giving them civilian trials or deporting them to unwilling hosts. Going back further to September 2007, candidate Obama postured about Iraq that he wanted "to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year -- now!" That "now!" sure sounded macho. On Iraq, candidate Obama also railed that "the American people have had enough of the shifting spin. We've had enough of extended deadlines for benchmarks that go unmet." Talk about "unmet" deadlines and "spin"- here we are in October 2009, and there are still 120,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The reason why Obama fudged on his promised deadline is that the surge in 2007 worked. American deaths plummeted. The theater is quiet. Iraqi democracy is still there after six years. Obama cannot quite admit these facts, but on the other hand he does not want to be responsible for undermining them. This July, our president roared out another impending deadline. He warned Iran that it had to prove its compliance with non-proliferation protocols by September - or face new consequences since the U.S. was not going to "wait indefinitely." Now it's October, and even the French are exasperated that Obama still sounds like the king of the jungle but acts like a purring house kitten. And no wonder that Iran and its patron Russia seem to be calculating that Obama will figure that a nuclear Iran is less troubling for him than the consequences of offending Vladimir Putin, spiking oil prices or using force in the volatile Middle East. The list of what a melodramatic Obama threatens or promises to do and what he actually does is endless. Health care: The president once warned Congress that it had to pass comprehensive reform by the August congressional recess. August came and went, and now we're still waiting, waiting, waiting . . . . Afghanistan: This was once Obama's promised war to win - the one we had to refocus on after supposedly taking our eye off the ball to fight in Iraq. Now, instead, we are suddenly blaming the eight-year-old Karzai government for not being the stable partner we need to finish the job. Ethics reform: During the campaign, Obama vowed to end lobbyists in government, post legislation on the Internet five days before a presidential signing, and air health-care negotiations and discussion on C-SPAN. In short, just imagine if Obama were to warn Congress to get health-care done by Nov. 15 -- or else; or to give Iran one last chance until the first of the year to stop enriching uranium; or to promise that Guantanamo really, really will close on March 1, 2010. Would anyone take him seriously, much less fret about the consequences of ignoring those vows? Obama ran on the accusation that Bush missed promised targets and deadlines. Yet when the loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush, he suffers an additional wage of theatrical hypocrisy.
But there is an even greater problem. Overheated rhetoric got Obama into these jams - and he seems to expect that his dramatic flair can always get him out as well. So we all await more of the empty hope-and-change hocus-pocus - as Obama explains how he never really promised to get out of Iraq "now!" or to "take further steps" against Iran in September 2009.
When Jan. 1, 2010, comes and goes, I expect the president to say that, "I can no more shut down Guantanamo than I can . . . . "
Well, by now you know the rest of what follows.
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.


































































































































Ex BBC Reporter and BBC Television Host David Icke Speaks out on...INLNews.com



 
Ex BBC Reporter and BBC Television Host David Icke Speaks out on...INLNews.com


Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story
  '...I'm hungry, mum, can I have some hope please?....
         .. why I say Obama is far more dangerous to freedom than Bush..
The CAP will fit and Obama will wear it...
Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story ' 
...David Icke..ex BBC Journalist and TV Presenter
Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story, but lives a very different one. He won his first political office as a state senator in Chicago in 1996, not through the power of politics, but by coldly abusing
 the electoral process. Instead of running against his opponents and letting the people decide, he had his cronies challenge hundreds of names on the nomination papers of his democratic primary rivals until they were forced off the ballot by technicalities. Obama then ran unopposed. One of
 them, Gha-is Askia, says, that Obama's behaviour belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights:
'...Why say you're for new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates? Obama talks about honour and democracy, but what honour is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?....'

Barack Obama Net Worth

Net Worth: Stats $11.8 Million As of 2012 Source of Wealth: Books, Politics (Annual Salary: $400,000)
Barack Obama Net Worth

 














Barack Hussein Obama II Age: 51 Years Old

Barack Hussein Obama II Date of Birth: August 4, 1961

Barack Hussein Obama II Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.

Barack Hussein Obama II Nationality:  United States

Barack Hussein Obama II Ethnicity: African, Irish, English

Barack Hussein Obama II Height: 6' 1" (1.85 m)

Barack Hussein Obama II Weight: 176 lbs (80 kg)

Barack Hussein Obama II Full Name: Barack Hussein Obama II

Barack Hussein Obama II Marital Status: Married (Michelle Obama)

Barack Hussein Obama II Children: 2 (Malia, Sasha)

Barack Hussein Obama II Education: J.D./Harvard Law School,B.A./Columbia University

Barack Hussein Obama II Occupation: Politician (Current U.S. President ), Author

Annual Salary: $400,000

Barack Obama and family 
 Barack Obama with supporters and left...Mitt Romney right with a baby
 Ohio Election Rally 2012 USA presidential elections

The 44th president of the United States, author and the most popular person in the world,  Barack Hussein Obama II, has a net worth between $2,801,012 and $11,830,000, according to analysis of his 2012 financial disclosure forms. Excluding the $1.4 million in Nobel Prize money he donated to charity and his primary home. His historic run for the presidency helped him sell millions of copies of his two books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope, during the campaign. He sold another 100,000 copies the week following his election. In 2009, the president earned an advance for an abridged version of Dreams for young adults; the deal made him the first sitting president in recent memory to receive a book advance while in office. The real money will be made years from now: Obama could certainly earn tens of millions of dollars a year giving speeches full time. President Barack Obama’s base salary is $400,000 a year. He also has access to a $150,000 expense account as well as a $100,000 tax free travel account and $20,000 entertainment budget. Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate, and is the first African American President of the United States. Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.




Here is one Brzezinski (Obama's and all previous presidents going back to Carter's Security advisor) quote you might recognise and it was made before Obama ran for president:

'.... Need social reassessment...can be encouraged by deliberate civic education that stresses the notion of service to a higher cause than oneself. As some have occasionally urged, a major step in that direction would be the adoption of an obligatory period of national service for every young adult, perhaps involving a variety of congressionally approved domestic or foreign good works...'
Now where have I heard that before?
As an Illuminati operative, Brzezinski's aim is to create a world government, central bank, current and army - a global dictatorship - underpinned by a micro-chipped population connected to a global computer'satellite system.  He wrote a book in 1970,  Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era, in which he described the global society that he and the Illuminati seek to impose:
'..The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional value. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. There files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities...'
He also said in the same book nearly 40 year ago:
'..Today we are witnessing the emergence of transnational elites...(Whose) ties cut across national boundaries... It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook.... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty ...Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with soeme consequent risk to the present relatively favourable American position....'


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-dang_b_147188.html

Obama's Team Includes Dangerous Biotech "Yes Men"

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith

The world's leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices.
Posted: November 30, 2008





Biotech "Yes Men" on Obama's team threaten to expand the use of dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods in our diets. Instead of giving us change and hope, they may prolong the hypnotic "group think" that has been institutionalized over three previous administrations—where critical analysis was abandoned in favor of irrational devotion to this risky new technology.
Clinton's agriculture secretary Dan Glickman saw it first hand:
"It was almost immoral to say that [biotechnology] wasn't good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. . . . If you're against it, you're Luddites, you're stupid. That, frankly, was the side our government was on. . . . You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view"
When Glickman dared to question the lax regulations on GM food, he said he "got slapped around a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the people even in the administration."
By shutting open-minds and slapping dissent, deceptive myths about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) persist.
  • The industry boasts that GMOs reduce herbicide use; USDA data show that the opposite is true.
  • We hear that GMOs increase yield and farmer profit; but USDA and independent studies show an average reduction in yield and no improved bottom line for farmers.
  • George H. W. Bush fast-tracked GMOs to increase US exports; now the government spends an additional $3-$5 billion per year to prop up prices of the GM crops no one wants.
  • Advocates continue to repeat that GMOs are needed to feed the world; now the prestigiousInternational Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development has joined a long list of experts who flatly reject GMOs as the answer to hunger.
Food Safety Lies
Of all the myths about GMOs, the most dangerous is that they are safe. This formed the hollow basis of the FDA's 1992 GMO policy, which stated:
"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."
The sentence is complete fiction. At the time it was written, there was overwhelming consensus among the FDA's own scientists that GM foods were substantially different, and could create unpredictable, unsafe, and hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, diseases, and nutritional problems. They had urged the political appointees in charge to require long-term safety studies, including human studies, to protect the public.
Their concerns stayed hidden until 1999, when 44,000 pages of internal FDA memos and reports were made public due to a lawsuit. According to public interest attorney Steven Druker, the documents showed how their warnings and "references to the unintended negative effects" of genetic engineering "were progressively deleted from drafts of the policy statement," in spite of scientists' protests.
"What has happened to the scientific elements of this document?" wrote FDA microbiologist Louis Pribyl, after reviewing the latest rewrite of the policy. "It will look like and probably be just a political document. . . . It reads very pro-industry, especially in the area of unintended effects."
Who flooded the market with dangerous GMOs
Thanks to the FDA's "promote biotech" policy, perilously few safety studies and investigations have been conducted on GMOs. Those that have, including two government studies from Austria and Italy published just last month, demonstrate that the concerns by FDA scientists should have been heeded. GMOs have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions in humans, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. GMOs are unsafe.
At the highest level, the responsibility for this disregard of science and consumer safety lies with the first Bush White House, which had ordered the FDA to promote the biotechnology industry and get GM foods on the market quickly. To accomplish this White House directive, the FDA created a position for Michael Taylor. As the FDA's new Deputy Commissioner of Policy, he oversaw the creation of GMO policy.
Taylor was formerly the outside attorney for the biotech giant Monsanto, and later became their vice president. He had also been the counsel for the International Food Biotechnology Council (IFBC), for whom he drafted a model of government policy designed to rush GMOs onto the market with no significant regulations. The final FDA policy that he oversaw, which did not require any safety tests or labeling, closely resembled the model he had drafted for the IFBC.
Michael Taylor is on the Obama transition team.
Genetically engineered bovine growth hormone and unhealthy milk
Taylor was also in charge when the FDA approved Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH or rbST). Dairy products from treated cows contain more pus, more antibiotics, more growth hormone, and more IGF-1—a powerful hormone linked to cancer and increased incidence of fraternal twins (see www.YourMilkonDrugs.com.) The growth hormone is banned in most industrialized nations, including Canada, the EU, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. But under Michael Taylor, it was approved in the US, without labeling.
As more and more consumers here learn about the health risks of the drug, they shift their purchases to brands that voluntarily label their products as not using rbGH. Consumer rejection of rbGH hit a tipping point a couple of years ago, and since then it has been kicked out of milk from Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Kroger, Subway, and at least 40 of the top 100 dairies. In 2007, Monsanto desperately tried to reverse the trend by asking the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to label their products as free from rbGH. Both agencies flatly refused the company's request.
But Monsanto turned to an ally, Dennis Wolff, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. Wolff used his position to single-handedly declare rbGH-free labels illegal in his state. Such a policy would make it impossible for national dairy brands to declare their products rbGH-free, since they couldn't change packaging just for Pennsylvania. Wolff's audacious move so infuriated citizens around the nation, the outpouring caused the governor to step in and stop the prohibition before it took effect.
Dennis Wolff, according to unbossed.com, is being considered for Obama's USDA Secretary.
Although Pennsylvania did not ultimately ban rbGH-free labels, they did decide to require companies who use the labels to also include a disclaimer sentence on the package, stating that the according to the FDA there is no difference between milk from cows treated with rbGH and those not treated. In reality, this sentence contradicts the FDA's own scientists. (Is this sounding all too familiar?) Even according to Monsanto's own studies, milk from treated cows has more pus, antibiotics, bovine growth hormone, and IGF-1. Blatantly ignoring the data, a top FDA bureaucrat wrote a "white paper" urging companies that labeled products as rbGH-free to also use that disclaimer on their packaging. The bureaucrat was Michael Taylor.
Betting on biotech is "Bad-idea virus"
For several years, politicians around the US were offering money and tax-breaks to bring biotech companies into their city or state. But according to Joseph Cortright, an Oregon economist who co-wrote a 2004 report on this trend, "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable. This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials." He said it "remains a money-losing, niche industry."
One politician who caught a bad case of the bad-idea virus was Tom Vilsack, Iowa's governor from 1998-2006. He was co-creator and chair of the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership in 2000 and in 2001 the Biotech Industry Organization named him BIO Governor of the Year.
Tom Vilsack was considered a front runner for Obama's USDA secretary. Perhaps the outcry prompted by Vilsack's biotech connections was the reason for his name being withdrawn.
Change, Truth, Hope
I don't know Barack Obama's position on GMOs. According to a November 23rd Des Moines Register article, "Obama, like Bush, may be Ag biotech ally", there are clues that he has not been able to see past the biotech lobbyist's full court spin.
- His top scientific advisers during the campaign included Sharon Long, a former board member of the biotech giant Monsanto Co., and Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate who co-chaired a key study of genetically engineered crops by the National Academy of Sciences back in 2000. - [Obama] said biotech crops "have provided enormous benefits" to farmers and expressed confidence "that we can continue to modify plants safely."
On the other hand, Obama may have a sense how pathetic US GMO regulations are, since he indicated that he wants "stringent tests for environmental and health effects" and "stronger regulatory oversight guided by the best available scientific advice."
There is, however, one unambiguous and clear promise that separates Obama from his Bush and Clinton predecessors.
President Obama will require mandatory labeling of GMOs.
Favored by 9 out of 10 Americans, labeling is long overdue and is certainly cause for celebration.
(I am told that now Michael Taylor also favors both mandatory labeling and testing of GMOs. Good going Michael; but your timing is a bit off.)
Please sign a petition asking President Obama to make his GMO labeling plan comprehensive and meaningful.
Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html

You're Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It's Not So!

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith

The world's leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices.
Posted: July 23, 200






Read More: Accelerated Aging , Allergies , American Academy Of Environmental Medicine , Asthma , Bovine Growth Hormone , Cancer , Dennis Wolff , Dr. P. M. Bhargava , Fda , FDA Policy , Food And Drug Administration ,Food Labels , Food Related Illness , Food Safety , Food Safety Czar , Food Supply , Gastrointestinal Disorder ,GE Foods , Genetically Engineered , Genetically Engineered Foods , Genetically Modified Foods , Genetically Modified Organisms , GM Foods , GMO Labels , Gmos , Governor Ed Rendell , Igf-1 , Immune Problems ,Infertility , Inflammation , Insulin Regulation , Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 , International Dairy Foods Association, Michael Taylor. Safety Testing , Milk , Milk Supply , Monsanto , Multiple Chronic Illness , Ohio Governor Strickland , Organic , Organic Trade Association , Pennsylvania Secretary Of Agriculture , President Obama ,Rbgh , Rbst , Revolving Door , Substantially Equivalent , Green News

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/858
The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.
Here's the back story.
When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply -- the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods --secret documents now reveal that the experts werevery concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.
But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.

Dangerous Food Safety Lies
When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to "different risks" than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.
This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them -- companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.
GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled -- from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.
In January of this year, Dr. P. M. Bhargava, one of the world's top biologists, told me that after reviewing 600 scientific journals, he concluded that the GM foods in the US are largely responsible for the increase in many serious diseases.
In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation
In July, a report by eight international experts determined that the flimsy and superficial evaluations of GMOs by both regulators and GM companies "systematically overlook the side effects" and significantly underestimate "the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others."
The Fox Guarding the Chickens
If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.
This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America's food safety czar. What have we done?
The Milk Man Cometh
While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90's, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto'sgenetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST) -- injected into cows to increase milk supply.
The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitalshave taken stands against rbGH. A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk -- unless it was organic and therefore untreated.
Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDA's approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But it was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.
Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.
Taylor's disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto's own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor's white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.
Will Monsanto's Wolff Also Guard the Chickens?
As consumers learned that rbGH was dangerous, they refused to buy the milk. To keep their customers, a tidal wave of companies has publicly committed to not use the drug and to label their products as such. Monsanto tried unsuccessfully to convince the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to make rbGH-free claims, so they went to their special friend in Pennsylvania -- Dennis Wolff. As state secretary of agriculture, Wolff unilaterally declared that labeling products rbGH-free was illegal, and that all such labels must be removed from shelves statewide. This would, of course, eliminate the label from all national brands, as they couldn't afford to create separate packaging for just one state.
Fortunately, consumer demand forced Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell to step in and stop Wolff's madness. But Rendell allowed Wolff to take a compromised position that now requires rbGH-free claims to also be accompanied by Taylor's FDA disclaimer on the package.
President Obama is considering Dennis Wolff for the top food safety post at the USDA. Yikes!
Rumor has it that the reason why Pennsylvania's governor is supporting Wolff's appointment is to get him out of the state -- after he "screwed up so badly" with the rbGH decision. Oh great, governor. Thanks.
Ohio Governor Gets Taylor-itus
Ohio not only followed Pennsylvania's lead by requiring Taylor's FDA disclaimer on packaging, they went a step further. They declared that dairies must place that disclaimer on the same panel where rbGH-free claims are made, and even dictated the font size. This would force national brands to re-design their labels and may ultimately dissuade them from making rbGH-free claims at all. The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association filed a lawsuit against Ohio. Although they lost the first court battle, upon appeal, the judge ordered a mediation session that takes place today. Thousands of Ohio citizens have flooded Governor Strickland's office with urgent requests to withdraw the states anti-consumer labeling requirements.
Perhaps the governor has an ulterior motive for pushing his new rules. If he goes ahead with his labeling plans, he might end up with a top appointment in the Obama administration.

To hear what America is saying about GMOs and to add your voice, go to our new non-GMO Facebook Group.
Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.
INDEX: 
KEY FDA DOCUMENTS REVEALING 
(1) HAZARDS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS--AND 
(2) FLAWS WITH HOW THE AGENCY MADE ITS POLICY
  Alliance for Bio-Integrity     HOME
About the Documents 
You will see scanned reproductions (exact copies) of some of the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) internal memoranda about the hazards of genetically engineered foods.  These documents became available through the Alliance for Bio-Integrity's lawsuit (Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al., vs. Shalala, et al.) to gain mandatory safety testing and labeling of these foods.  The large numbers on the bottom of each page (i.e. 18952) are the Administrative Record (A.R.) numbers affixed by the FDA.
How to View and Print 
In order to make these documents easily accessible, we've saved each page in two different formats: one intended for viewing on your monitor using your internet browser (click on "View Document"), and one formatted in PDF suitable for printing onto a  8 1/2" X 11" sheet of paper (click on "Print Document").
To print the PDF files you will need free software called Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you don't already have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it here.  Depending on your computer and internet connection, downloading Adobe Acrobat Reader may take up to fifteen minutes.  You may find that the best way to view and read the documents on your monitor is to select the PDF files; they are larger files and therefore may take slightly longer to download, but the Acrobat Reader enables you to enlarge or reduce the image size to fit your monitor. 
 
 A.  FDA Scientists Discuss Various Safety Concerns
  1. Comments from Dr. Linda Kahl, FDA compliance officer, to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator, about the Federal Register document "Statement of Policy: Foods from Genetically Modified Plants."  Dated January 8, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  2.  
  3. Memorandum from Dr. Edwin J. Mathews to the Toxicology Section of the Biotechnology Working Group. Subject: "Analysis of the Major Plant Toxicants."  Dated October 28, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  4.  
  5. Memorandum from Dr. Samuel I. Shibko to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Revision of Toxicology Section of the Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Plants." Dated January 31, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  6.  
  7. Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: the "Biotechnology Draft Document, 2/27/92." Dated March 6, 1992. (5 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  8.  
  9. Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: "... the March 18, 1992 Version of the Biotechnology Document." Dated March 18, 1992. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document 
  10. Comments from Division of Food Chemistry and Technology and Division of Contaminants Chemistry. Subject: "Points to Consider for Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Foods.  Supplemental Information."  Dated November 1, 1991. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  11.  
  12. Memorandum from Dr. Mitchell Smith, Head, Biological and Organic Chemistry Section, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Comments on Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology, Dec. 12, 1991 draft."  Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  13.  
  14. Letter from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Bill Murray, Chairman of the Food Directorate, Canada.  Subject: the safety assessment of foods and food ingredients developed through new biotechnology.  Dated October 23, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  15.  
  16. Comments from Dr. Carl B. Johnson on the "draft statement of policy 12/12/91."  Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  17.  
  18. Memorandum from Dr. Gerald B. Guest, Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Regulation of Transgenic Plants--FDA Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology."  Dated February 5, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  19.  
    B.  Specific Objections to Use of Antibiotic-Resistant Marker Genes
  20. Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Murray Lumpkin.  Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Marker Gene in Tomatoes."  (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  21.  
  22. Memorandum from Dr. Murray Lumpkin to Dr. Bruce Burlington.  Subject: "The tomatoes that will eat Akron." Dated December 17, 1992. (7 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  23.  
  24. Memorandum from Dr. Albert Sheldon to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Markers in Tomatoes."  Dated March 30, 1993.  (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  25.  
    C.  Safety Questions Raised by Tests on the Flavr Savr Tomato--the Most Thoroughly Tested      Bioengineered Food
  26. Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl.  Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato:" ... "Pathology Branch's Evaluation of Rats with Stomach Lesions From Three Four-Week Oral (Gavage) Toxicity Studies" ... "and an Expert Panel's Report."  Dated June 16, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  27. Memorandum from Robert J. Scheuplein, Ph.D. to the FDA Biotechnology Coordinator and others. Subject: "Response to Calgene Amended Petition." Dated October 27, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  28.  
  29. Memorandum from Dr. Carl B. Johnson to Dr. Linda Kahl & Others.  Subject: "Flavr Savr(TM) tomato; significance of pending DHEE question." Dated Dec 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  30.  
  31. Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl.  Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato"... "Pathology Branch's Remarks to Calgene Inc.'s Response to FDA Letter of June 29, 1993."  Dated December 10, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  32.  
    D.  Additional Evidence of Improprieties In The Formation Of FDA Policy On 
        Bioengineered Foods
  33. Note from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Mr. Michael Taylor.  Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Development."  Dated October 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  34.  
  35. Document titled "FDA REGULATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM GENETICALLY ALTERED PLANTS: POINTS TO CONSIDER"  Not dated. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  36.  
  37. Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanksi, Biotechnology Coordinator, to the Director of the Center for Applied Nutrition.  Subject: "FDA Task Group on Food Biotechnology: Progress Report 2." Dated August 15, 1991. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  38.  
  39. Memorandum from David Kessler, Commissioner of Food & Drugs.  Subject: "FDA Proposed Statement of Policy Clarifying the Regulation of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Plants--DECISION." Dated March 20, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  40.  
  41. Letter from Terry Medley, J.D. (of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Comments on FDA Draft Statement of Policy on foods derived from new plant varieties, including plants derived by recombinant DNA techniques. Dated April 2, 1992. (5 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  42.  
  43. Note from Eric Katz (Dept. of Health & Human Services) to John Gallivan.  Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Statement."  Dated March 27, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary -View Document - Print Document
  44. Memorandum from James B. MacRae, Jr. (of the Office of Management and Budget), for C. Boyden Gray (President Bush’s White House counsel).  Subject: "FDA Food Biotechnology Policy."  Dated March 21, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

    1.  
      Alliance for Bio Integrity 
    http://biointegrity.org/FDAdocs/01/view2.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-dang_b_147188.html









US Election: Romney To Campaign To The Wire

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign has announced he will make two new stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Election Day. The surprise move comes as he and President Barack Obama make one last push for votes in one of the closest battles for the White House in decades. Mr Romney, currently at a rally in Fairfax, Virginia, was scheduled to end his campaigning with a late-night rally Monday in New Hampshire, but is now set to campaign in Cleveland and Pittsburgh as America goes to the polls. "We are only one day away from a fresh start, one day away from the start of a new beginning ... to start putting the past four years behind us and start building a new future, Mr Romney said at his second rally of the day in Lynchburg, Virginia. "This is not just a choice between two candidates or two parties. It is a choice between two visions," Mr Obama told nearly 20,000 people in Wisconsin, before heading to Ohio for a rally in Columbus with rapper Jay-Z Both candidates are hitting the skies to squeeze in as much campaigning as possible ahead of Tuesday's election - covering six key swing states between them in 14 hours. Mr Romney was the first to touch down earlier, and once again, put the focus on the economy and his own track record in business. "The President promised change, but he couldn't deliver change," he told a crowd at an airport hangar in Sanford, outside Orlando. "I not only promised change, but I've a record of achieving it. "I actually built a business. I helped turn around another business. I helped get the Olympics back on track. And then with a democrat legislature - 85% democrat - I helped turn my state from deficit to surplus, from job losses to job growth, and from lower take home pay to higher take home pay." He continued: "We have one job left. We need every single vote in Florida. "We ask you to stay at it all the way to victory on Tuesday night," he added, calling on supporters to make last-ditch phone calls and door knocks. As Mr Romney addressed crowds in Florida, Mr Obama arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, for his first campaign stop of the day at a rally with rock legend Bruce Springsteen. "We've made progress these last four years, but the reason we're all gathered here - in addition to listening to Bruce - is because we know we've got more work to do," Mr Obama said to a crowd chanting "four more years". He told voters they had a choice to make of "returning to the top-down policies that crashed our economy, or a future that's built on providing opportunity to everybody, and growing a strong middle-class". The candidates have attended hundreds of rallies, fundraisers and town hall events, spent billions on advertising and ground campaigns, and squared off in three intense televised debates. Nationwide polls show the pair level-pegging with just over 47% of the vote each. A majority of polls in the battleground states - including Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio - show Mr Obama with a slight advantage, giving him an easier path to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Sky's Dominic Waghorn in Madison, said: "At the end of this process America remains pretty much as it was half a year ago - divided down the middle, neck-and-neck. "The polls give the President a slight edge - but he has got to get the vote out to be sure he can win." The Obama campaign is scheduled to make a further stop in Des Moines, Iowa, while Mr Romney is also visiting Columbus, Ohio and Manchester, New Hampshire.


General Election: Romney vs. Obama

RCP Electoral Map | Changes in Electoral Count | Map With No Toss Ups | No Toss Up Changes

Polling Data

Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) Romney (R) Spread
RCP Average 10/22 - 11/4 -- -- 47.8 47.4 Obama +0.4
Rasmussen Reports 11/2 - 11/4 1500 LV 3.0 48 49 Romney +1
CNN/Opinion Research 11/2 - 11/4 693 LV 3.5 49 49 Tie
Pew Research 10/31 - 11/3 2709 LV 2.2 50 47 Obama +3
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/29 - 11/1 1000 LV 3.1 48 48 Tie
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 11/1 - 11/3 1475 LV 2.6 48 47 Obama +1
ABC News/Wash Post 10/31 - 11/3 2069 LV 2.5 49 48 Obama +1
FOX News 10/28 - 10/30 1128 LV 3.0 46 46 Tie
CBS News/NY Times 10/25 - 10/28 563 LV 4.0 48 47 Obama +1
National Journal 10/25 - 10/28 713 LV 4.4 50 45 Obama +5
Gallup 10/22 - 10/28 2700 LV 2.0 46 51 Romney +5
NPR 10/23 - 10/25 1000 LV 3.1 47 48 Romney +1
IBD/TIPP 10/22 - 10/27 930 LV 3.5 45 44 Obama +1

All General Election: Romney vs. Obama Polling Data

Race 4 Years Ago vs. Today, 2012 vs. 2008 | Race 8 Years Ago vs. Today, 2012 vs. 2004

Intrade Market Prices for General Election: Romney vs. Obama

  Obama Romney  
Intrade Real Time Quotes (See More Data)
RCP POLL AVERAGE 
General Election: Romney vs. Obama
47.8 Obama (D)+0.4
47.4 Romney (R)
APPLYRESET
43444546474849
JulSepNov024
FROM:  TO: 
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Recent Commentary & News Stories

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    King & Meckler, Wall St. Jrnl
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    Dan Hirschhorn, The Daily
  • Fear & Loathing in Ohio
    Robert Stacy McCain, The American Spectator
  • Obama Camp Exudes Confidence in Stretch Run
    Nancy Cordes, CBS News

See All Commentary & News Stories

Polling Data

Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) Romney (R) Spread
RCP Average 10/22 - 11/4 -- -- 47.8 47.4 Obama +0.4
Rasmussen Reports 11/2 - 11/4 1500 LV 3.0 48 49 Romney +1
CNN/Opinion Research 11/2 - 11/4 693 LV 3.5 49 49 Tie
Pew Research 10/31 - 11/3 2709 LV 2.2 50 47 Obama +3
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/29 - 11/1 1000 LV 3.1 48 48 Tie
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 11/1 - 11/3 1475 LV 2.6 48 47 Obama +1
ABC News/Wash Post 10/31 - 11/3 2069 LV 2.5 49 48 Obama +1
FOX News 10/28 - 10/30 1128 LV 3.0 46 46 Tie
CBS News/NY Times 10/25 - 10/28 563 LV 4.0 48 47 Obama +1
Pew Research 10/24 - 10/28 1495 LV 2.9 47 47 Tie
National Journal 10/25 - 10/28 713 LV 4.4 50 45 Obama +5
Gallup 10/22 - 10/28 2700 LV 2.0 46 51 Romney +5
NPR 10/23 - 10/25 1000 LV 3.1 47 48 Romney +1
IBD/TIPP 10/22 - 10/27 930 LV 3.5 45 44 Obama +1
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/22 - 10/25 1000 LV 3.1 49 48 Obama +1
Associated Press/GfK 10/19 - 10/23 839 LV 4.2 45 47 Romney +2
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 10/18 - 10/21 1402 LV 2.6 45 48 Romney +3
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 10/17 - 10/20 816 LV 3.4 47 47 Tie
CBS News 10/17 - 10/20 790 LV 4.0 48 46 Obama +2
WashTimes/JZ Analytics* 10/18 - 10/20 800 LV 3.5 50 47 Obama +3
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/15 - 10/18 1000 LV 3.1 47 49 Romney +2
Hartford Courant/UConn 10/11 - 10/16 1023 LV 3.0 48 45 Obama +3
ABC News/Wash Post 10/10 - 10/13 923 LV 3.5 49 46 Obama +3
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/7 - 10/11 1000 LV 3.1 49 48 Obama +1
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 10/8 - 10/10 1360 LV 2.7 46 47 Romney +1
FOX News 10/7 - 10/9 1109 LV 3.0 45 46 Romney +1
Gallup Tracking 10/4 - 10/10 2700 LV 2.0 47 48 Romney +1
Gallup Tracking 10/4 - 10/10 3050 RV 2.0 48 46 Obama +2
Pew Research 10/4 - 10/7 1112 LV 3.4 45 49 Romney +4
Rasmussen Tracking 10/4 - 10/6 1500 LV 3.0 47 49 Romney +2
WashTimes/JZ Analytics* 10/5 - 10/7 800 LV 3.5 45 45 Tie
Politico/GWU/Battleground 10/1 - 10/4 1000 LV 3.1 49 48 Obama +1
Rasmussen Tracking 10/1 - 10/3 1500 LV 3.0 49 47 Obama +2
Gallup Tracking 9/27 - 10/3 3050 RV 2.0 49 45 Obama +4
CNN/Opinion Research 9/28 - 9/30 783 LV 3.5 50 47 Obama +3
National Journal 9/27 - 9/30 789 LV 4.2 47 47 Tie
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 9/26 - 9/30 832 LV 3.4 49 46 Obama +3
NPR 9/26 - 9/30 800 LV 4.0 51 44 Obama +7
ABC News/Wash Post 9/26 - 9/29 813 LV 4.0 49 47 Obama +2
Quinnipiac 9/25 - 9/30 1912 LV 2.2 49 45 Obama +4
WashTimes/JZ Analytics* 9/27 - 9/29 800 LV 3.5 50 41 Obama +9
Politico/GWU/Battleground 9/24 - 9/27 1000 LV 3.1 49 47 Obama +2
FOX News 9/24 - 9/26 1092 LV 3.0 48 43 Obama +5
Bloomberg 9/21 - 9/24 789 LV 3.5 49 43 Obama +6
Politico/GWU/Battleground 9/16 - 9/20 1000 LV 3.1 50 47 Obama +3
National Journal 9/15 - 9/19 1055 LV 3.0 50 43 Obama +7
Associated Press/GfK 9/13 - 9/17 807 LV 4.3 47 46 Obama +1
Hartford Courant/UConn 9/11 - 9/18 1186 LV 3.0 46 43 Obama +3
Rasmussen Tracking 9/14 - 9/16 1500 LV 3.0 45 47 Romney +2
Reason-Rupe/PSRAI 9/13 - 9/17 787 LV 4.3 52 45 Obama +7
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 9/13 - 9/16 1344 LV 2.7 48 45 Obama +3
Gallup Tracking 9/11 - 9/17 3050 RV 2.0 47 46 Obama +1
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 9/12 - 9/16 736 LV 3.6 50 45 Obama +5
Pew Research/PSRAI 9/12 - 9/16 2268 LV 2.4 51 43 Obama +8
FOX News 9/9 - 9/11 1056 LV 3.0 48 43 Obama +5
CBS News/NY Times 9/8 - 9/12 1162 LV 3.0 49 46 Obama +3
Democracy Corps (D) 9/8 - 9/12 1000 LV 3.1 50 45 Obama +5
Esquire/Yahoo! News 9/7 - 9/10 724 LV 5.0 50 46 Obama +4
Reuters/Ipsos 9/7 - 9/10 873 LV 3.4 48 45 Obama +3
Gallup Tracking 9/5 - 9/11 3050 RV 2.0 50 43 Obama +7
Rasmussen Tracking 9/7 - 9/9 1500 LV 3.0 50 45 Obama +5
ABC News/Wash Post 9/7 - 9/9 710 LV 4.5 49 48 Obama +1
CNN/Opinion Research 9/7 - 9/9 709 LV 3.5 52 46 Obama +6
IBD/CSM/TIPP 9/4 - 9/9 808 RV 3.5 46 44 Obama +2
CNN/Opinion Research 8/31 - 9/3 735 LV 3.5 48 48 Tie
Democracy Corps (D) 8/23 - 8/27 1000 LV 3.1 49 47 Obama +2
CBS News 8/22 - 8/26 1051 RV 3.0 46 45 Obama +1
Gallup Tracking 8/21 - 8/27 3050 RV 2.0 46 47 Romney +1
Rasmussen Tracking 8/23 - 8/25 1500 LV 3.0 47 45 Obama +2
ABC News/Wash Post 8/22 - 8/25 857 RV 4.0 46 47 Romney +1
CNN/Opinion Research 8/22 - 8/23 719 LV 3.5 49 47 Obama +2
FOX News 8/19 - 8/21 1007 LV 3.0 44 45 Romney +1
Resurgent Republic (R) 8/16 - 8/22 1000 LV 3.1 46 45 Obama +1
Associated Press/GfK 8/16 - 8/20 885 RV 4.1 47 46 Obama +1
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 8/16 - 8/20 1000 RV 3.1 48 44 Obama +4
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 8/15 - 8/19 1149 LV 2.9 46 45 Obama +1
LA Times/USC 8/13 - 8/19 954 LV 3.2 48 46 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 8/8 - 8/10 1500 LV 3.0 44 46 Romney +2
Gallup 8/6 - 8/12 3050 RV 2.0 46 46 Tie
CNN/Opinion Research 8/7 - 8/8 911 RV 3.5 52 45 Obama +7
Politico/GWU/Battleground 8/5 - 8/9 1000 LV 3.1 48 47 Obama +1
FOX News 8/5 - 8/7 930 RV 3.0 49 40 Obama +9
IBD/CSM/TIPP 8/3 - 8/10 828 RV 3.5 46 39 Obama +7
Reuters/Ipsos 8/2 - 8/6 1014 RV 3.4 49 42 Obama +7
Rasmussen Reports 7/29 - 7/31 1500 LV 3.0 44 47 Romney +3
Gallup 7/24 - 7/31 3050 RV 2.0 47 45 Obama +2
Democracy Corps (D) 7/21 - 7/25 700 LV 3.7 50 46 Obama +4
Pew Research 7/16 - 7/26 1956 RV 3.2 51 41 Obama +10
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 7/18 - 7/22 1000 RV 3.1 49 43 Obama +6
FOX News 7/15 - 7/17 901 RV 3.0 45 41 Obama +4
CBS News/NY Times 7/11 - 7/16 942 RV 3.0 46 47 Romney +1
Rasmussen Reports 7/12 - 7/14 1500 LV 3.0 45 45 Tie
Gallup 7/8 - 7/14 3050 RV 2.0 47 45 Obama +2
NPR 7/9 - 7/12 1000 LV 3.1 47 45 Obama +2
McClatchy/Marist 7/9 - 7/11 849 RV 3.5 48 46 Obama +2
WashTimes/JZ Analytics* 7/6 - 7/8 800 LV 3.5 42 43 Romney +1
Reuters/Ipsos 7/5 - 7/9 885 RV 3.4 49 43 Obama +6
ABC News/Wash Post 7/5 - 7/8 RV 4.0 47 47 Tie
Quinnipiac 7/1 - 7/8 2722 RV 1.9 46 43 Obama +3
Rasmussen Reports 7/2 - 7/6 1500 LV 3.0 45 45 Tie
Gallup 7/1 - 7/8 3050 RV 2.0 47 45 Obama +2
Pew Research 6/28 - 7/9 2373 RV 2.3 50 43 Obama +7
CNN/Opinion Research 6/28 - 7/1 1390 RV 2.5 49 46 Obama +3
Newsweek/Daily Beast 6/28 - 6/28 600 LV 4.0 47 44 Obama +3
Democracy Corps (D) 6/23 - 6/27 1000 LV 3.1 49 46 Obama +3
FOX News 6/24 - 6/26 912 RV 3.0 45 40 Obama +5
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 6/20 - 6/24 819 RV 3.4 47 44 Obama +3
Rasmussen Reports 6/18 - 6/20 1500 LV 3.0 43 47 Romney +4
Gallup 6/14 - 6/20 3050 RV 2.0 45 47 Romney +2
Bloomberg 6/15 - 6/18 734 LV 3.6 53 40 Obama +13
Associated Press/GfK 6/14 - 6/18 878 RV 4.2 47 44 Obama +3
Pew Research 6/7 - 6/17 1563 RV 2.9 50 46 Obama +4
Reuters/Ipsos 6/7 - 6/11 848 RV 3.4 45 44 Obama +1
Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun 6/4 - 6/6 1152 LV 2.9 47 46 Obama +1
Rasmussen Reports 6/4 - 6/6 1500 LV 3.0 46 46 Tie
Gallup 6/2 - 6/8 3050 RV 2.0 46 45 Obama +1
FOX News 6/3 - 6/5 907 RV 3.0 43 43 Tie
IBD/CSM/TIPP 6/1 - 6/8 841 RV 3.5 46 42 Obama +4
CNN/Opinion Research 5/29 - 5/31 895 RV 3.5 49 46 Obama +3
ABC News/Wash Post 5/17 - 5/20 874 RV 4.0 49 46 Obama +3
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 5/16 - 5/20 RV -- 47 43 Obama +4
Pew Research 5/9 - 6/3 2388 RV 2.3 49 42 Obama +7
Rasmussen Reports 5/14 - 5/16 1500 LV 3.0 45 46 Romney +1
Gallup 5/11 - 5/17 3050 RV -- 45 46 Romney +1
FOX News 5/13 - 5/15 913 RV 3.0 46 39 Obama +7
IBD/CSM/TIPP 5/9 - 5/16 778 RV 3.6 43 40 Obama +3
Mason-Dixon 5/10 - 5/14 1000 LV 3.0 44 47 Romney +3
CBS News/NY Times** 5/11 - 5/13 562 RV 4.0 43 46 Romney +3
WashTimes/JZ Analytics* 5/11 - 5/12 800 LV 3.5 43 44 Romney +1
Gallup 5/3 - 5/9 3000 RV 2.0 44 47 Romney +3
Associated Press/GfK 5/3 - 5/7 871 RV 4.2 50 42 Obama +8
Reuters/Ipsos 5/3 - 5/7 959 RV 3.2 49 42 Obama +7
Rasmussen Reports 5/4 - 5/6 1500 LV 3.0 45 47 Romney +2
Resurgent Republic (R) 4/30 - 5/3 1000 RV 3.1 49 42 Obama +7
Politico/GWU/Battleground 4/29 - 5/3 1000 LV 3.1 47 48 Romney +1
IBD/CSM/TIPP 4/27 - 5/4 856 RV 3.3 46 43 Obama +3
Democracy Corps (D) 4/28 - 5/1 1000 LV 4.0 47 47 Tie
Gallup 4/23 - 4/28 2200 RV 3.0 47 46 Obama +1
Rasmussen Reports 4/25 - 4/27 1500 LV 3.0 47 45 Obama +2
FOX News 4/22 - 4/24 915 RV 3.0 46 46 Tie
National Journal 4/19 - 4/22 1004 A 3.7 47 39 Obama +8
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 4/13 - 4/17 RV -- 49 43 Obama +6
CBS News/NY Times 4/13 - 4/17 852 RV 3.0 46 46 Tie
Quinnipiac 4/11 - 4/17 2577 RV 1.9 46 42 Obama +4
Gallup 4/12 - 4/16 2200 RV 3.0 43 48 Romney +5
CNN/Opinion Research 4/13 - 4/15 910 RV 3.5 52 43 Obama +9
Rasmussen Reports 4/13 - 4/15 1500 LV 3.0 44 47 Romney +3
Reuters/Ipsos 4/12 - 4/15 891 RV 3.3 47 43 Obama +4
PPP (D) 4/12 - 4/15 900 RV 3.3 49 46 Obama +3
Pew Research 4/4 - 4/15 2373 RV 2.3 49 45 Obama +4
FOX News 4/9 - 4/11 910 RV 3.0 44 46 Romney +2
Rasmussen Reports 4/6 - 4/8 1500 LV 3.0 46 44 Obama +2
ABC News/Wash Post 4/5 - 4/8 RV -- 51 44 Obama +7
IBD/CSM/TIPP 3/30 - 4/5 816 RV 3.3 46 38 Obama +8
USA Today/Gallup 3/25 - 3/26 901 RV 4.0 49 45 Obama +4
CNN/Opinion Research 3/24 - 3/25 925 RV 3.0 54 43 Obama +11
Rasmussen Reports 3/23 - 3/25 1500 LV 3.0 46 43 Obama +3
McClatchy/Marist 3/20 - 3/22 846 RV 3.5 46 44 Obama +2
PPP (D) 3/15 - 3/17 900 RV 3.3 48 44 Obama +4
Reason-Rupe 3/10 - 3/20 1200 A 3.0 46 40 Obama +6
FOX News 3/10 - 3/12 912 RV 3.0 46 42 Obama +4
Reuters/Ipsos 3/8 - 3/11 937 RV 3.3 52 41 Obama +11
Bloomberg 3/8 - 3/11 746 LV 3.6 47 47 Tie
Pew Research 3/7 - 3/11 1188 RV 3.5 54 42 Obama +12
Rasmussen Reports 3/8 - 3/10 1500 LV 3.0 42 48 Romney +6
CBS News/NY Times 3/7 - 3/11 878 RV 3.0 47 44 Obama +3
ABC News/Wash Post 3/7 - 3/10 RV -- 47 49 Romney +2
IBD/CSM/TIPP 3/4 - 3/11 807 RV 3.3 46 41 Obama +5
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 2/29 - 3/3 RV -- 50 44 Obama +6
Politico/GWU/Battleground 2/19 - 2/22 1000 LV 3.1 53 43 Obama +10
USA Today/Gallup 2/20 - 2/21 881 RV 4.0 47 47 Tie
Associated Press/GfK 2/16 - 2/20 1000 A 4.1 51 43 Obama +8
USA Today/Gallup 2/16 - 2/19 898 RV 4.0 46 50 Romney +4
Rasmussen Reports 2/16 - 2/18 1500 LV 3.0 47 43 Obama +4
Quinnipiac 2/14 - 2/20 2605 RV 1.9 46 44 Obama +2
Democracy Corps (D) 2/11 - 2/14 1000 LV 3.1 49 45 Obama +4
CNN/Opinion Research 2/10 - 2/13 937 RV 3.0 51 46 Obama +5
CBS News/NY Times 2/8 - 2/13 1604 RV 3.0 48 42 Obama +6
PPP (D) 2/9 - 2/12 1200 RV 2.8 49 42 Obama +7
Pew Research 2/8 - 2/12 1172 RV 3.5 52 44 Obama +8
Rasmussen Reports 2/7 - 2/9 1500 LV 3.0 50 40 Obama +10
FOX News 2/6 - 2/9 1110 RV 3.0 47 42 Obama +5
Reuters/Ipsos 2/2 - 2/6 881 RV 3.3 48 42 Obama +6
ABC News/Wash Post 2/1 - 2/4 879 RV 4.0 51 45 Obama +6
IBD/CSM/TIPP 1/29 - 2/4 852 RV 3.3 47 41 Obama +6
Rasmussen Reports 1/31 - 2/2 1500 LV 3.0 45 45 Tie
USA Today/Gallup 1/27 - 1/28 907 RV 4.0 48 48 Tie
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 1/22 - 1/24 RV -- 49 43 Obama +6
Rasmussen Reports 1/19 - 1/21 1500 LV 3.0 46 43 Obama +3
PPP (D) 1/13 - 1/16 700 RV 3.7 49 44 Obama +5
CBS News/NY Times 1/12 - 1/16 1021 RV 3.0 45 45 Tie
ABC News/Wash Post 1/12 - 1/15 RV -- 46 48 Romney +2
Pew Research 1/11 - 1/16 1207 RV 3.5 50 45 Obama +5
FOX News 1/12 - 1/14 906 RV 3.0 46 45 Obama +1
CNN/Opinion Research 1/11 - 1/12 928 RV 3.0 47 48 Romney +1
Democracy Corps (D) 1/8 - 1/11 1000 LV 3.1 47 46 Obama +1
Rasmussen Reports 1/9 - 1/10 1000 LV 3.0 44 41 Obama +3
Reuters/Ipsos 1/5 - 1/9 896 RV 3.2 48 43 Obama +5
CBS News 1/4 - 1/8 1247 RV 3.0 45 47 Romney +2
Rasmussen Reports 1/3 - 1/4 1000 LV 3.0 42 42 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 12/27 - 12/28 1000 LV 3.0 39 45 Romney +6
Rasmussen Reports 12/20 - 12/21 1000 LV 3.0 44 41 Obama +3
CNN/Opinion Research 12/16 - 12/18 928 RV 3.0 52 45 Obama +7
PPP (D) 12/16 - 12/18 700 RV 3.7 45 47 Romney +2
ABC News/Wash Post 12/15 - 12/18 RV -- 47 47 Tie
USA Today/Gallup 12/15 - 12/18 898 RV 4.0 50 48 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 12/14 - 12/15 1000 LV 3.0 42 43 Romney +1
Reuters/Ipsos 12/8 - 12/12 921 RV 3.2 48 40 Obama +8
Associated Press/GfK 12/8 - 12/12 1000 A 4.0 47 46 Obama +1
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 12/7 - 12/11 RV -- 47 45 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 12/8 - 12/9 1000 LV 3.0 42 45 Romney +3
USA Today/Gallup 12/6 - 12/7 883 RV 4.0 47 46 Obama +1
FOX News 12/5 - 12/7 911 RV 3.0 44 42 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 11/30 - 12/1 1000 LV 3.0 42 40 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 11/21 - 11/22 1000 LV 3.0 44 38 Obama +6
Quinnipiac 11/14 - 11/20 2552 RV 1.9 45 44 Obama +1
FOX News 11/13 - 11/15 914 RV 3.0 42 44 Romney +2
CNN/Opinion Research 11/11 - 11/13 925 RV 3.0 47 51 Romney +4
Pew Research 11/9 - 11/14 1576 RV 3.0 49 47 Obama +2
PPP (D) 11/10 - 11/13 800 RV 3.5 46 43 Obama +3
Rasmussen Reports 11/9 - 11/10 1000 LV 3.0 43 42 Obama +1
McClatchy/Marist 11/8 - 11/10 872 RV 3.5 48 44 Obama +4
Politico/GWU/Battleground 11/6 - 11/9 1000 LV 3.1 49 43 Obama +6
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 11/2 - 11/5 RV -- 49 43 Obama +6
ABC News/Wash Post 10/31 - 11/3 RV -- 46 47 Romney +1
Reuters/Ipsos 10/31 - 11/3 937 RV 3.2 43 44 Romney +1
Rasmussen Reports 11/1 - 11/2 1000 LV 3.0 42 41 Obama +1
Quinnipiac 10/25 - 10/31 2294 RV 2.1 47 42 Obama +5
USA Today/Gallup 10/26 - 10/27 908 RV 4.0 47 47 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 10/24 - 10/25 1000 LV 3.0 42 44 Romney +2
Democracy Corps (D) 10/15 - 10/18 1000 LV -- 45 45 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 10/16 - 10/17 1000 LV 3.0 43 42 Obama +1
Associated Press/GfK 10/13 - 10/17 1000 A 4.0 48 45 Obama +3
Time 10/9 - 10/10 838 LV -- 48 44 Obama +4
PPP (D) 10/7 - 10/10 700 RV 3.7 45 45 Tie
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 10/6 - 10/10 RV -- 46 44 Obama +2
Rasmussen Reports 10/8 - 10/9 1000 LV 3.0 43 41 Obama +2
Quinnipiac 9/27 - 10/3 2118 RV 2.1 42 46 Romney +4
ABC News/Wash Post 9/29 - 10/2 RV -- 46 48 Romney +2
Pew Research 9/22 - 10/4 1901 RV 3.0 48 48 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 9/28 - 9/29 1000 LV 3.0 42 44 Romney +2
FOX News 9/25 - 9/27 925 RV 3.0 45 42 Obama +3
CNN/Opinion Research 9/23 - 9/25 917 RV 3.0 49 48 Obama +1
Rasmussen Reports 9/18 - 9/19 1000 LV 3.0 44 41 Obama +3
USA Today/Gallup 9/15 - 9/18 889 RV 4.0 47 49 Romney +2
McClatchy/Marist 9/13 - 9/14 825 RV 3.5 46 44 Obama +2
Bloomberg 9/9 - 9/12 997 A 3.1 48 43 Obama +5
Reuters/Ipsos 9/8 - 9/12 932 RV 3.1 49 43 Obama +6
Rasmussen Reports 9/10 - 9/11 1000 LV 3.0 40 43 Romney +3
PPP (D) 9/8 - 9/11 665 RV 3.8 49 45 Obama +4
ABC News/Wash Post 8/29 - 9/1 RV -- 45 49 Romney +4
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 8/27 - 8/31 RV -- 46 45 Obama +1
Rasmussen Reports 8/25 - 8/26 1000 LV 3.0 43 39 Obama +4
Quinnipiac 8/16 - 8/27 2730 RV 1.9 45 45 Tie
PPP (D) 8/18 - 8/21 700 RV 3.7 45 45 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 8/17 - 8/21 1000 LV 3.0 46 38 Obama +8
Gallup 8/17 - 8/18 879 RV 4.0 46 48 Romney +2
Democracy Corps (D) 8/6 - 8/10 1000 LV 3.0 48 46 Obama +2
CNN/Opinion Research 8/5 - 8/7 930 RV 3.0 49 48 Obama +1
McClatchy/Marist 8/2 - 8/4 807 RV 3.5 46 41 Obama +5
FOX News 7/17 - 7/19 904 RV 3.0 47 41 Obama +6
ABC News/Wash Post 7/14 - 7/17 RV -- 49 47 Obama +2
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 7/14 - 7/17 RV -- 48 41 Obama +7
PPP (D) 7/15 - 7/17 928 RV 3.2 45 45 Tie
Rasmussen Reports 7/14 - 7/15 1000 LV 3.0 42 43 Romney +1
Quinnipiac 7/5 - 7/11 2311 RV 2.0 47 41 Obama +6
McClatchy/Marist 6/15 - 6/23 390 RV 5.0 46 42 Obama +4
Democracy Corps (D) 6/18 - 6/21 1000 RV 3.0 47 45 Obama +2
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 6/9 - 6/13 RV 3.1 49 43 Obama +6
PPP (D) 6/9 - 6/12 520 RV 4.3 47 45 Obama +2
FOX News 6/5 - 6/7 912 RV 3.0 48 41 Obama +7
Reuters/Ipsos 6/3 - 6/6 1132 A 3.0 51 38 Obama +13
ABC News/Wash Post 6/2 - 6/5 RV 3.5 46 49 Romney +3
Quinnipiac 5/31 - 6/6 1946 RV 2.2 47 41 Obama +6
PPP (D) 5/23 - 5/25 600 RV 4.0 49 42 Obama +7
Democracy Corps (D) 5/21 - 5/25 1000 LV 3.0 48 44 Obama +4
Politico/GWU/Battleground 5/8 - 5/12 1000 LV 3.1 52 40 Obama +12
Reuters/Ipsos 5/5 - 5/9 600 A -- 51 38 Obama +13
PPP (D) 5/5 - 5/8 814 RV 3.4 47 42 Obama +5
Newsweek/Daily Beast 5/2 - 5/3 600 A 3.0 42 36 Obama +6
Newsweek/Daily Beast 4/30 - 5/1 600 A 3.0 44 44 Tie
CNN/Opinion Research 4/29 - 5/1 964 RV 3.0 54 43 Obama +11
ABC News/Wash Post 4/14 - 4/17 1001 A 3.5 49 45 Obama +4
McClatchy/Marist 4/10 - 4/14 532 RV 4.5 46 45 Obama +1
Democracy Corps (D) 4/10 - 4/12 1000 LV 3.1 46 48 Romney +2
PPP (D) 4/7 - 4/10 532 RV 4.3 47 41 Obama +6
PPP (D) 3/10 - 3/13 642 RV 3.9 47 42 Obama +5
Rasmussen Reports 3/6 - 3/9 2000 LV 2.0 45 40 Obama +5
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 2/24 - 2/28 RV -- 49 40 Obama +9
Newsweek/Daily Beast 2/12 - 2/15 918 LV 3.5 49 47 Obama +2
PPP (D) 2/11 - 2/14 600 RV 4.0 46 41 Obama +5
FOX News 2/7 - 2/9 911 RV 3.0 48 41 Obama +7
PPP (D) 1/14 - 1/16 632 RV 3.9 48 43 Obama +5
Democracy Corps (D) 1/9 - 1/12 1000 LV 3.0 48 46 Obama +2
McClatchy/Marist 1/6 - 1/10 827 RV 3.5 51 38 Obama +13
Rasmussen Reports 1/3 - 1/6 2000 LV -- 42 44 Romney +2
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 12/9 - 12/13 1000 A 3.1 47 40 Obama +7
McClatchy/Marist 12/2 - 12/8 873 RV 3.5 44 46 Romney +2
PPP (D) 11/19 - 11/21 707 RV 3.7 47 46 Obama +1
Quinnipiac 11/8 - 11/15 2424 RV 2.0 44 45 Romney +1
CNN/Opinion Research 10/27 - 10/30 921 RV 3.0 45 50 Romney +5
FOX News 9/28 - 9/29 900 RV 3.0 41 40 Obama +1
PPP (D) 9/10 - 9/13 590 RV 4.0 46 43 Obama +3
PPP (D) 8/6 - 8/9 606 RV 4.0 45 42 Obama +3
PPP (D) 7/9 - 7/12 667 RV 3.8 43 46 Romney +3
PPP (D) 6/4 - 6/7 650 RV 3.8 45 42 Obama +3
PPP (D) 5/7 - 5/9 707 RV 3.7 46 44 Obama +2
PPP (D) 4/9 - 4/11 622 RV 3.9 44 45 Romney +1
CNN/Opinion Research 4/9 - 4/11 907 RV 3.5 53 45 Obama +8
PPP (D) 3/12 - 3/14 1403 RV 2.6 44 44 Tie
PPP (D) 2/13 - 2/15 743 RV 3.6 45 43 Obama +2
PPP (D) 1/18 - 1/19 1151 RV 2.8 44 42 Obama +2
FOX News 1/12 - 1/14 900 RV 3.0 47 35 Obama +12
PPP (D) 12/4 - 12/7 1253 RV 2.8 47 42 Obama +5
Rasmussen Reports 11/24 - 11/24 800 LV 3.5 44 44 Tie
PPP (D) 11/13 - 11/15 1066 RV 3.0 48 43 Obama +5
PPP (D) 10/16 - 10/19 766 RV 3.5 48 40 Obama +8
PPP (D) 9/18 - 9/21 621 RV 3.9 48 39 Obama +9
PPP (D) 8/14 - 8/17 909 RV 3.3 47 40 Obama +7
Rasmussen Reports 7/16 - 7/17 1000 LV 3.0 45 45 Tie
PPP (D) 7/15 - 7/16 577 RV 4.1 49 40 Obama +9
PPP (D) 6/12 - 6/16 638 RV 3.9 48 40 Obama +8
PPP (D) 5/14 - 5/18 1000 RV 3.1 53 35 Obama +18
PPP (D) 4/17 - 4/19 686 RV 3.7 50 39 Obama +11




http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html





http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack_Obama_vs_Mitt_Romney

Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney

Diffen › 
Politics › 
U.S. Politics › 
2012 Elections › 
2012 Presidential Election

This is an unbiased comparison of the policies and positions of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties respectively in the 2012 election for President of the United States.

In most cases, their political positions and are aligned with the typical liberal and conservative ideologies in the U.S.

Comparison chart

Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney

Diffen › 
Politics › 
U.S. Politics › 
2012 Elections › 
2012 Presidential Election

This is an unbiased comparison of the policies and positions of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties respectively in the 2012 election for President of the United States.

In most cases, their political positions and are aligned with the typical liberal and conservative ideologies in the U.S.

Comparison chart

Barack Obama
  • Currently 4.03/5

Rating: 4.0/5 (9310 votes)

Mitt Romney
  • Currently 3.43/5

Rating: 3.4/5 (8288 votes)

Political Party: Democratic Republican
Alma Mater: Occidental College, Columbia University (BA), Harvard Law School (JD) Stanford University, Brigham Young University (BA), Harvard University (MBA, JD)
Position on the Economy: Repeal Bush tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000. Lower taxes on manufacturing industry. Stimulus spending and tax cuts to grow the economy (short term). Cut spending and raise taxes on wealthy to reduce deficit (long term). Make Bush tax cuts permanent. Lower corporate tax rate across the board to 25%. Cut taxes and regulations to encourage business. Cut "non-security discretionary [government] spending" by 5% to reduce deficit.
Position on Healthcare: Signed the 2010 healthcare overhaul bill. Calls for patient protections like allowing coverage for pre-existing conditions, not letting insurers cancel policies when patients get sick, and requiring individuals to buyhealth insurance or pay a fine. Created similar legislation in Mass. but believes it's not appropriate for all of USA and wants to repeal. Proposes encouraging individuals to purchase their own health insurancerather than via employers, and allowing insurance across state lines.
Position on Immigration: Supports path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English & paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border. Issued exec order to not deport certain undocumented immigrants Would make English the official language of the US and "turn off themagnets like tuition breaks or other breaks that draw people into this country illegally". In favor of promoting legal immigration.
Position on Iraq: Opposed invasion from the beginning; opposed troop increase; ended military operations in Iraq(on previously negotiated Bush timeline). Made no effort to keep promise to exit in 2009. Troops moved to Afghanistan and Iranian border. Romney says that keeping the U.S. in Iraq is the best option for minimizing casualties and maintaining a democratic government in Iraq.
Position on Iran: Engage in direct diplomacy; tighten economic sanctions with international cooperation; military option not off the table. Failed to deliver on 2008 campaign promise to meet with the Iranian president without preconditions. Tighten economic sanctions; Military option not off the table.
Position on Global Warming and Environment: Supports a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions. Delayed decision on northern leg of Keystone XL pipeline due to environmental concerns. Opposes cap and trade legislation. Supports Keystone XL pipeline. Exporting carbon emissions to China hurts US and planet. (Aug 2007), Humans contribute to world getting warmer. (Nov 2011), $20 billion package for energy research & new car technology
Position on Indefinite detention: Publicly opposed but debate on Congressional floor revealed that his Administration asked for language excluding American citizens. Would have signed NDAA as is.
Position on Military Intervention: Publicly opposed wars and intervention but has recently admitted to expanding Afghan conflict into Pakistan. Says Congressional approval not required if UN gives approval. Consult with lawyers on legality but believes President has the right to do what he believes makes the country safer.
Position on Gay rights: Supports same-sex marriage; pushed Congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, allowing gays to serve openly in the military Opposes same-sex marriage; supports legal unions; supports Don't Ask, Don't Tell but favors gays serving openly in the military(Govwatch 1994), supported ENDA to ban anti-gay employer discrimination
Position on Abortion: Supports Roe v. Wade; criticized Supreme Court decision that upheld ban on partial-birth abortions. Opposes Roe v. Wade; believes states should be allowed to ban abortions., 1994: Supported abortion rights but personally opposed, No punishment for women who have partial birth abortions, change of heart in 2005 when preparing to run for President
Full name: Barack Hussein Obama Willard Mitt Romney
Profession: Lawyer, politician, author Businessman, politician, author
Place of Birth: Honolulu, Hawaii Detroit, Michigan
Children: Malia Ann (b July 4, 1998) and Natasha (known as Sasha) (b June 10, 2001) Tagg (b. 1970), Matt (b. 1971), Josh (b. 1975), Ben (b. 1978), Craig (b. 1981)
Spouse(s): Michelle Obama Ann Romney (m. 1969–present)
Website: http://www.barackobama.com http://www.mittromney.com
Religion: Christian (United Church of Christ) Christian (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a.k.a. Mormon)
Residence: Washington, D.C. Belmont, Massachusetts
Running mate: Joseph "Joe" Biden Paul Ryan
Date of Birth: August 4,1961 March 12, 1947
Books Authored: Dreams from My Father: A story of Race and Inheritance; and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts of Reclaiming the American Dream. No Apology: The Case for American Greatness; and Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games
Obama vs romney caricature by DonkeyHotey
Obama vs romney caricature by DonkeyHotey

Contents

  • 1 Differences in Economic Policy
    • 1.1 Tax Policy
    • 1.2 Stimulus Spending and Bailouts
    • 1.3 Regulation
    • 1.4 Trade
    • 1.5 Mortgage Modification and Housing Policy
    • 1.6 Social Security
  • 2 Healthcare Policy
    • 2.1 On Medicare
    • 2.2 On Medicaid
  • 3 Social Issues
    • 3.1 On Gay Rights
      • 3.1.1 Marriage equality (aka Gay Marriage)
      • 3.1.2 Don't Ask, Don't Tell
    • 3.2 On Abortion
    • 3.3 On Immigration
    • 3.4 Women's Rights
    • 3.5 Education Policy
    • 3.6 Gun Control
    • 3.7 Civil Liberties and Homeland Security
  • 4 Differences in Foreign Policy
    • 4.1 Russia
    • 4.2 Afghanistan
    • 4.3 Syria
    • 4.4 Iran
    • 4.5 Israel-Palestine Conflict
    • 4.6 Position on Iraq
    • 4.7 Global Popularity
  • 5 Energy Policy
    • 5.1 Impact
    • 5.2 Oil companies
  • 6 Environmental Policy
  • 7 Debates
    • 7.1 First Debate
    • 7.2 Second Debate
      • 7.2.1 Fact Checking for the Second Debate
    • 7.3 Third Debate
  • 8 Recent News
  • 9 Chances of winning
    • 9.1 Opinion polls
    • 9.2 Prediction markets
  • 10 Nomination Acceptance Speeches
  • 11 Books Authored
  • 12 See Also
  • 13 References

Differences in Economic Policy

Tax Policy

Highlights of Mitt Romney's tax plan include:

  • Individual taxes
    • Maintain current marginal tax rates; make the Bush tax cuts permanent (Romney's website is inconsistent on this issue as of Apr 13, 2012. The summary indicates he is proposing a 20% across-the-board cuts in marginal tax rates while the policy PDF file summary indicates he wants to maintain marginal tax rates at current levels.)
    • Eliminate estate (inheritance) tax
    • Eliminate taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains for individuals with incomes below $200,000
    • Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
  • Corporate taxes
    • Cut the corporate tax rate to 25%
    • Make the R&D tax credit permanent
    • Repeal the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
    • Move to a territorial tax system where US companies will not have to pay U.S. taxes on income earned overseas even when repatriated.

In order to pay for these tax cuts, Romney has proposed eliminating certain tax deductions, such as mortgage interest deduction for second homes, state income tax deduction and state property tax deduction. Romney has also said he would look to the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for budget cuts.[1]

Highlights of Barack Obama's tax policy include:

  • Individual taxes
    • Let Bush-era tax cuts expire for households where income is more than $250,000
    • A "Buffett rule" where individuals with incomes more than $1 million are required to pay a certain minimum tax rate (30%) regardless of the source of their income
  • Corporate taxes
    • Tax credits for manufacturing firms
    • "Eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas"

Stimulus Spending and Bailouts

As President, Barack Obama supported the bailouts for banks and other financial services firms like AIG, as well as the auto bailouts for GM and Chrysler. Romney opposed the auto bailouts and had proposed that the companies should have been allowed to file for bankruptcy.

Obama also passed a stimulus bill that included tax cuts as well as government spending, including programs like the "cash for clunkers" program. Romney opposes stimulus spending by the government because it adds to the deficit. Instead, he favors cutting taxes on individuals and businesses to stimulate growth.

Regulation

Obama believes the 2008 financial crisis was a result of excessive deregulation of the banking industry and that government regulation is needed for when markets fail[2]. But he has called for a review of regulations to eliminate ones that "don't make sense". Romney favors deregulation to foster a more business-friendly environment.[3]

Trade

  • Romney Nov 2011 Trade with China only if they follow international rules
  • Obama Jan 2011 Double our exports by 2014; starting with South Korea
  • Romney Mar 2010 Trade is good for the nation, but not good for everybody
  • Obama July 2008 NAFTA protects corporate profits; should protect labor

Mortgage Modification and Housing Policy

  • Romney Nov 2011 Let foreclosures happen; let the market reboot
  • Obama July 2008 Prosecute mortgager fraud; require full mortgage disclosure

Social Security

  • Romney March 2010 Add individual retirement accounts as option
  • Obama Sept 2007 Privatization puts retirement at whim of stock market

Healthcare Policy

See also:Obamacare vs Romneycare

Healthcare is a contentious issue in the 2012 election because of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare). President Obama signed the bill into law and is a strong supporter of universal healthcarecoverage. Several provisions of the plan, including the controversial mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance, were modeled after the bill passed by Romney in Massachusetts when he was governor. However, Romney has said the bill is wrong at the federal level. Romney has promised to repeal the bill via an executive order if he gets elected president. Trying to differentiate between the Massachusetts law he signed and the federal law, Romney said:[4]

I would repeal Obamacare, if I were ever in a position to do so. My experience has taught me that states are where healthcare programs for the uninsured should be crafted, just as the Constitution provides. Obamacare is bad law, bad policy, and it is bad for America's families.

On Medicare

Obama favors a government-run Medicare program while Romney believes that the federal government does a poor job of running Medicare and has embraced Paul Ryan's plan of overhauling Medicare. Highlights of Ryan's planinclude:

  • No changes for seniors currently already on Medicare or those over 55
  • For future Medicare recipients, a voucher-based system that provides a fixed amount of money to seniors so they can buy health insurance on their own. The amount of money would increase every year to account for inflation (general inflation, which may be different from the inflation rate in healthcare costs). The amount of money would depend upon income so that high-income seniors would receive less assistance than the poor.
  • The option to stay on Medicare in lieu of private insurance based on the voucher system.

Supporters of the Republican plan say that the private sector is likely to administer health insurance better than the government does with Medicare. They also predict that seniors will benefit from increased competition in the marketplace, which will drive down costs and improve quality. Critics have argued that Ryan's plan would weaken Medicare because private insurers will cherry-pick customers and only provide insurance to the relatively healthy, leaving sicker, higher-cost patients in the Medicare pool. They also say that seniors may be too old or too ill to make informed choices and deal with problems (such as billing errors, pre-authorization requirements) that may arise with private insurance. Finally, critics believe that if the value of the voucher does not keep pace with the rising healthcare costs, then seniors will be unable to afford health insurance.

On Medicaid

Romney supports greater state control of the Medicaid program. The New York Times has argued that while Obama wants to greatly expand the number of people covered by Medicaid, Romney wants to greatly reduce the reach of the program.

 The president envisions adding as many as 17 million people to the rolls by allowing everyone with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level to enroll, including many childless adults.
 Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan would take Medicaid in the opposite direction. They would push for the repeal of the health care law and replace the current Medicaid program with block grants, giving each state a lump sum and letting them decide eligibility and benefits. (Currently, the federal government sets minimum requirements, like covering all children under the poverty level, which some states surpass. It also provides unlimited matching funds.) The grants would grow at the rate of inflation, with adjustments for population growth.
 As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Ryan has proposed cutting federal spending on Medicaid by $810 billion over 10 years, largely from repealing the health care law. Mr. Obama’s expansion plan, by contrast, would cost an additional $642 billion over the same period, according to the most recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

Quotes

  • Romney Dec 2011 No FEDERAL individual mandate; but state mandate ok
  • Obama Jan 2011 Repealing healthcare reform would cost $250B
  • Romney Oct 2011 ObamaCare waivers on Day One; repeal bill on Day Two
  • Obama July 2008 If we started from scratch, one-payer system would be best

Social Issues

On Gay Rights

Marriage equality (aka Gay Marriage)

In the 2008 election, Obama's stand was that he supported civil unions and according gay couples all the legal rights that married couples had. However, he did not support same-sex marriage. In May 2012, he revised his stand and said that he supports the right of gay couples to get married.

Mitt Romney holds a more conservative position on the issue. He wants to enact federal legislation outlawing gay marriage.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

President Obama repealed the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the military. Romney was not in favor of the repeal.

On Abortion

Obama supports Roe v. Wade while Romney has called for the landmark Supreme Court decision to be overturned. When contesting in Massachusetts elections (both for Governor in 2002 and for the U.S. Senate seat in 1994), Romney's position was different. He had said that while he was personally opposed to abortion on moral grounds, he agreed with the Supreme Court decision. He has said he had a change of heart in 2005.

When Obama was Illinois state senator, he opposed the Induced Infant Liability Act and repeatedly voted against requirements and restrictions intended to stop what opponents label "born alive" abortions. Obama said his opposition was because Illinois law already required medical care in such situations where the child is alive and because of technical language he felt might have "interfered with a woman's right to choose".

Obama voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, saying "On an issue like partial birth abortion, I strongly believe that the state can properly restrict late-term abortions. I have said so repeatedly. All I've said is we should have a provision to protect the health of the mother, and many of the bills that came before me didn't have that." Obama voted against a bill that would have made it a federal crime for anyone other than a parent to accompany a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion. Obama has, however, expressed support of bans on some late-term abortions, provided they include exemptions for the mental and physical health of the mother.

Quotes

  • Romney Mar 2007 Would welcome overturning Roe v. Wade
  • Obama May 2004 Protect a woman’s right to choose
  • Romney Jan 2012 Stem-cell cloning breaches an ethical boundary
  • Obama Aug 2007 Stem cells hold promise to cure 70 major diseases

On Immigration

Under President Obama's term, the Department of Homeland Security has carried out more deportations than the Bush administration. However, in June 2012, President Obama announced a shift in immigration policy via an executive order. The new policy would stop deportations of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children (under 16), have finished high school, have no criminal record and are under 30 years of age.[5]

The policy is similar to the DREAM Act but does not offer amnesty or a path to citizenship. It merely gives young immigrants a two-year work visa.

While voters approved of Obama's decision 2-to-1[6], Romney criticized it saying it was not a long-term solution because it was not a legislation but a Presidential executive order that could be overturned.[7]

Romney's stated policy during the Republican primaries was to allow undocumented immigrants to "self-deport" by making it impossible for them to find work. Romney has said he is in favor of legal immigration, including giving green cards to international students who graduate from U.S. colleges and have the skills that the U.S. needs.

  • Romney Jan 2012 Enforce employment laws; illegal immigrants will self-deport
  • Obama Jan 2008 Immigrants are scapegoats for high unemployment rates
  • Romney Sept 2011 Turn off the magnet that attracts immigrants
  • Obama Jan 2012 Let foreign students stay after graduating college

Women's Rights

  • Romney Oct 1994 Help women through glass ceiling by requiring annual reporting
  • Obama Aug 2008 Keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work

Education Policy

From the Washington Post reporting on the issues:

Obama has approved waivers to states for some of the most onerous requirements of the No Child Left Behindlaw. The Obama administration's Race to the Top competition has rewarded winning states with billions of dollars for pursuing education policies Obama supports. Won approval from Congress for a $10,000 college tax credit over four years and increases in Pell grants and other financial aid.
Mitt Romney supported the federal accountability standards of the No Child Left Behind law. He has said the student testing, charter-school incentives and teacher evaluation standards of Obama’s “Race to the Top” competition “make sense” although the federal government should have less control of education. Says increases in federal student aid encourage tuition to go up, too. Wants to see private lenders return to the federal student loan program.

Quotes

  • Romney April 2012: Mr. Romney said he would either consolidate the education department with another agency or make it "a heck of a lot smaller." "I'm not going to get rid of it entirely," he said.
  • Obama Jan 2012 Make community colleges into community career centers

Gun Control

  • Romney Nov 2008 My positions won't make me the hero of the NRA
  • Obama Feb 2008 Respect 2nd Amendment, but local gun bans ok

Civil Liberties and Homeland Security

  • Romney Jan 2012 Al Qaeda members are enemy combatants with no rights
  • Obama Oct 2007 The politics of fear undermines basic civil liberties

Differences in Foreign Policy

In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered, Susan Glasser, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine said that policy specifics from the two candidates were not dramatically different. She added that:

There is, at heart, an assertion across all of Mitt Romney's critiques of Barack Obama in the course of this campaign on foreign policy that comes down to America can be a shaper of events and not merely a passive reactor. He equates shaping events with proving or disproving American decline.

In an article for the Washington Post, Jackson Diehl outlined several foreign policy differences between the two candidates.

Russia

Obama wants to strike a new deal with Vladi­mir Putin to significantly cut the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles. In what he thought was a private aside, Obama told then-President Dmitry Medvedev that “after my election, I have more flexibility” on that, referring to compromises with Russia on U.S. and NATO plans for missile defense. In contrast, Romney strongly opposed Obama’s New Start treaty with Russia, which made a small reduction in nuclear warheads, and has promised to boost spending on missile defense.

Afghanistan

Both candidates support NATO’s plan to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. While some analysts say this means Obama and Romney's views are similar, Diehl has conjectured that Obama is more likely to reduce combat troops there in 2013 while Romney is more likely to follow the advice of U.S. generals who will advocate that combat troops not be cut.

A notable highlight of Obama's strategy against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan is the use of drones. Although his administration claims the attacks are carefully targeted at major terrorists, they frequently kill civilians.[8]

Syria

President Obama is opposed to arming the rebel forces in Syria and has repeatedly rejected proposals that the United States help establish safe zones for civilians. On the other hand Romney has voiced support for arming the Syrian opposition.

Iran

Romney and Obama have both said that Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. Diehl has suggested that Obama
probably would use force only if Iran actually tried to build a bomb, while a Romney attack could be triggered if Iran were merely close to acquiring all the means for a weapon — which it is.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

Obama supports a two-state solution with statehood for Palestine. Romney has not indicated that Palestinian statehood is among his top priorities. He has also expressed pessimism about there ever being peace in the region, calling the possibility "unthinkable". [9]

Position on Iraq

  • Romney Dec 2006 Withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake
  • Obama Jan 2012 For first time in 9 years, no Americans are fighting in Iraq

Global Popularity

When Barack Obama was sworn in as President in 2009, he was immensely popular abroad. American popularity had waned during the Bush presidency but with Obama's election attitudes had begun to change. Expecting a major shift in foreign policy, the Nobel Peace Prize committee even chose Obama as the winner of the prize in 2009. However, his popularity abroad has decreased significantly since then.[10]

Mitt Romney made some blunders on his foreign tour just ahead of the London Olympics when he made remarks about the under-preparedness of the city for the Olympics. This did not go over very well in the U.K. His fared better during his visit to Israel, whose Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has had a tenuous relationship with Obama.

Energy Policy

The Obama administration has supported clean energy projects, some of which have failed like Solandra. He has postponed the final decision on the Keystone XL extension, the northern leg of the Keystone pipeline, until an environmental review is completed.[11] In the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the Obama administration forced BP to create a $20 billion spill response fund, announced a moratorium on announced a moratorium on permits for new offshore oil wells and ended the policy of granting environmental waivers to oil companies. However, these announcements did not prevent new permits from being issued.[12][13] Read more aboutObama's energy policy.

Mitt Romney announced his energy policy in August 2012 and proposed giving states the power to determine whether drilling and mining should occur on federal lands within their borders. Romney’s policy also calls for opening more offshore drilling options, including off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas.[14] He is in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline. Read more about Mitt Romney's energy policy.

Impact

A recent Congressional Budget Office report suggested that opening nearly all federal lands to drilling would yield just $7 billion in government revenue over the next decade—a vast difference from "trillions of dollars" estimated by the Romney campaign. Asked about the disparity, Oren Cass, Romney's domestic policy director, said the campaign was including revenues from both onshore and offshore drilling on federal lands and suggested the CBO had produced lower numbers by not including lease payments, royalties and taxes certain to be earned in coming "years and decades."[15]

Oil companies

Romney has been criticized for favoring large oil and gas companies in his policies after they donated to his campaign.

Environmental Policy

  • Romney Jan 2008 States should be able to have their own emissions standards
  • Obama Aug 2007 Protect the Great Lakes & our National Parks and Forests
  • Romney Oct 2011 Replace "green jobs" program with American competitiveness
  • Obama April 2008 Genesis teaches stewardship of earth: sacrifice for future

Debates

All Presidential debates begin at 9:00pm Eastern time (6pm Pacific).

First Debate

The first presidential debate was held on October 3, 2012 at the University of Denver and was moderated by Jim Lehrer. Most analysts and viewers were of the opinion that Romney won the debate.[16][17][18]

An analysis of the claims made during the debate is available on factcheck.org.

Here's the full debate video:

Ahead of the debate, the Wall Street Journal published on Facebook this analysis contrasting the positions of the two candidates:

Contrasting the positions of Obama and Romney (via WSKJ)

Second Debate

The second debate was held on October 16, 2012 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. It was a town-hall style debate where ordinary people will ask questions to the two candidates. It was a tense debate and the exchange became testy on several occasions, with both candidates being aggressive and attacking each other's record and policies. The full video is presented below and analysis of the debate can be found here, here and here.

Fact Checking for the Second Debate

Several organizations published analyses after the debate fact-checking the claims made by the two candidates, including:

  • Bloomberg fact-checking on Detroit bankruptcy, taxes and tax math, Libyan embassy attack, immigration, contraception, energy production and coal jobs
  • FactCheck.org analysis covering many of the same issues as the Bloomberg analysis, but also including wind power "imaginary" jobs, taxes on the middle class, gas prices and women's jobs

Third Debate

The third and final presidential debate was held on October 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Although billed as a foreign policy debate, the discussion often veered into domestic issues such as the economy and education. The debate was moderated by Bob Schieffer. Here's the full video of the final debate:

Recent News

Chances of winning

The key battleground states are Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire. Three weeks before the election, John Cassidy analyzed the opinion polls and dissected them state-wise to determine the probability of Obama winning another term:

 For the sake of argument, let’s assume Romney carries Florida and Virginia. According to my map, that would leave him with 248 votes, still twenty-two short of victory. If he also wins Colorado and New Hampshire, both of which I have listed as toss-ups, he would get to 261 votes, leaving him needing nine more to reach 270. That means he would have to win Ohio or Wisconsin, or Iowa and Nevada. The good news for Democrats is that Obama appears to be holding onto his leads in all four of these states. That’s his firewall.

Opinion polls

Chart of Barack Obama (D) vs Mitt Romney (R) in Opinion Polls
Poll source Date(s) administered Barack Obama (D) Mitt Romney (R)
Fox News August 19—21, 2012 44% 45%
RCP Average August 7—21, 2012 47.0% 45.5%
Rasmussen Tracking August 19—21, 2012 44% 46%

Prediction markets

These charts show the chances for Obama and Romney in the 2012 presidential election, as predicted by the market on Intrade.com.[19][20] While opinion polls showed a dead heat, the prediction markets almost always gave Obama a more than even chance of winning. By election day, his chance of winning as predicted by Intrade prices, was close to 2 in 3.

Charts showing the chances for Obama and Romney in the 2012 presidential election, as predicted by the market on Intrade.com

Nomination Acceptance Speeches

Other notable speeches included Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention and Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

Books Authored

  • List of books authored by Barack Obama (Amazon.com)
  • List of books authored by Mitt Romney (Amazon.com)







Ex BBC Reporter and BBC Television Host David Icke Speaks out on...INLNews.com



 
Ex BBC Reporter and BBC Television Host David Icke Speaks out on...INLNews.com


Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story
  '...I'm hungry, mum, can I have some hope please?....
         .. why I say Obama is far more dangerous to freedom than Bush..
The CAP will fit and Obama will wear it...
Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story ' 
...David Icke..ex BBC Journalist and TV Presenter
Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story, but lives a very different one. He won his first political office as a state senator in Chicago in 1996, not through the power of politics, but by coldly abusing
 the electoral process. Instead of running against his opponents and letting the people decide, he had his cronies challenge hundreds of names on the nomination papers of his democratic primary rivals until they were forced off the ballot by technicalities. Obama then ran unopposed. One of
 them, Gha-is Askia, says, that Obama's behaviour belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights:
'...Why say you're for new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates? Obama talks about honour and democracy, but what honour is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?....'

Barack Obama Net Worth

Net Worth: Stats $11.8 Million As of 2012 Source of Wealth: Books, Politics (Annual Salary: $400,000)
Barack Obama Net Worth

 














Barack Hussein Obama II Age: 51 Years Old

Barack Hussein Obama II Date of Birth: August 4, 1961

Barack Hussein Obama II Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.

Barack Hussein Obama II Nationality:  United States

Barack Hussein Obama II Ethnicity: African, Irish, English

Barack Hussein Obama II Height: 6' 1" (1.85 m)

Barack Hussein Obama II Weight: 176 lbs (80 kg)

Barack Hussein Obama II Full Name: Barack Hussein Obama II

Barack Hussein Obama II Marital Status: Married (Michelle Obama)

Barack Hussein Obama II Children: 2 (Malia, Sasha)

Barack Hussein Obama II Education: J.D./Harvard Law School,B.A./Columbia University

Barack Hussein Obama II Occupation: Politician (Current U.S. President ), Author

Annual Salary: $400,000

Barack Obama and family 
 Barack Obama with supporters and left...Mitt Romney right with a baby
 Ohio Election Rally 2012 USA presidential elections

The 44th president of the United States, author and the most popular person in the world,  Barack Hussein Obama II, has a net worth between $2,801,012 and $11,830,000, according to analysis of his 2012 financial disclosure forms. Excluding the $1.4 million in Nobel Prize money he donated to charity and his primary home. His historic run for the presidency helped him sell millions of copies of his two books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope, during the campaign. He sold another 100,000 copies the week following his election. In 2009, the president earned an advance for an abridged version of Dreams for young adults; the deal made him the first sitting president in recent memory to receive a book advance while in office. The real money will be made years from now: Obama could certainly earn tens of millions of dollars a year giving speeches full time. President Barack Obama’s base salary is $400,000 a year. He also has access to a $150,000 expense account as well as a $100,000 tax free travel account and $20,000 entertainment budget. Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate, and is the first African American President of the United States. Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.




Here is one Brzezinski (Obama's and all previous presidents going back to Carter's Security advisor) quote you might recognise and it was made before Obama ran for president:

'.... Need social reassessment...can be encouraged by deliberate civic education that stresses the notion of service to a higher cause than oneself. As some have occasionally urged, a major step in that direction would be the adoption of an obligatory period of national service for every young adult, perhaps involving a variety of congressionally approved domestic or foreign good works...'
Now where have I heard that before?
As an Illuminati operative, Brzezinski's aim is to create a world government, central bank, current and army - a global dictatorship - underpinned by a micro-chipped population connected to a global computer'satellite system.  He wrote a book in 1970,  Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era, in which he described the global society that he and the Illuminati seek to impose:
'..The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional value. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. There files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities...'
He also said in the same book nearly 40 year ago:
'..Today we are witnessing the emergence of transnational elites...(Whose) ties cut across national boundaries... It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook.... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty ...Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with soeme consequent risk to the present relatively favourable American position....'


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-dang_b_147188.html

Obama's Team Includes Dangerous Biotech "Yes Men"

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith

The world's leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices.
Posted: November 30, 2008





Biotech "Yes Men" on Obama's team threaten to expand the use of dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods in our diets. Instead of giving us change and hope, they may prolong the hypnotic "group think" that has been institutionalized over three previous administrations—where critical analysis was abandoned in favor of irrational devotion to this risky new technology.
Clinton's agriculture secretary Dan Glickman saw it first hand:
"It was almost immoral to say that [biotechnology] wasn't good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. . . . If you're against it, you're Luddites, you're stupid. That, frankly, was the side our government was on. . . . You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view"
When Glickman dared to question the lax regulations on GM food, he said he "got slapped around a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the people even in the administration."
By shutting open-minds and slapping dissent, deceptive myths about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) persist.
  • The industry boasts that GMOs reduce herbicide use; USDA data show that the opposite is true.
  • We hear that GMOs increase yield and farmer profit; but USDA and independent studies show an average reduction in yield and no improved bottom line for farmers.
  • George H. W. Bush fast-tracked GMOs to increase US exports; now the government spends an additional $3-$5 billion per year to prop up prices of the GM crops no one wants.
  • Advocates continue to repeat that GMOs are needed to feed the world; now the prestigiousInternational Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development has joined a long list of experts who flatly reject GMOs as the answer to hunger.
Food Safety Lies
Of all the myths about GMOs, the most dangerous is that they are safe. This formed the hollow basis of the FDA's 1992 GMO policy, which stated:
"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."
The sentence is complete fiction. At the time it was written, there was overwhelming consensus among the FDA's own scientists that GM foods were substantially different, and could create unpredictable, unsafe, and hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, diseases, and nutritional problems. They had urged the political appointees in charge to require long-term safety studies, including human studies, to protect the public.
Their concerns stayed hidden until 1999, when 44,000 pages of internal FDA memos and reports were made public due to a lawsuit. According to public interest attorney Steven Druker, the documents showed how their warnings and "references to the unintended negative effects" of genetic engineering "were progressively deleted from drafts of the policy statement," in spite of scientists' protests.
"What has happened to the scientific elements of this document?" wrote FDA microbiologist Louis Pribyl, after reviewing the latest rewrite of the policy. "It will look like and probably be just a political document. . . . It reads very pro-industry, especially in the area of unintended effects."
Who flooded the market with dangerous GMOs
Thanks to the FDA's "promote biotech" policy, perilously few safety studies and investigations have been conducted on GMOs. Those that have, including two government studies from Austria and Italy published just last month, demonstrate that the concerns by FDA scientists should have been heeded. GMOs have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions in humans, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. GMOs are unsafe.
At the highest level, the responsibility for this disregard of science and consumer safety lies with the first Bush White House, which had ordered the FDA to promote the biotechnology industry and get GM foods on the market quickly. To accomplish this White House directive, the FDA created a position for Michael Taylor. As the FDA's new Deputy Commissioner of Policy, he oversaw the creation of GMO policy.
Taylor was formerly the outside attorney for the biotech giant Monsanto, and later became their vice president. He had also been the counsel for the International Food Biotechnology Council (IFBC), for whom he drafted a model of government policy designed to rush GMOs onto the market with no significant regulations. The final FDA policy that he oversaw, which did not require any safety tests or labeling, closely resembled the model he had drafted for the IFBC.
Michael Taylor is on the Obama transition team.
Genetically engineered bovine growth hormone and unhealthy milk
Taylor was also in charge when the FDA approved Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH or rbST). Dairy products from treated cows contain more pus, more antibiotics, more growth hormone, and more IGF-1—a powerful hormone linked to cancer and increased incidence of fraternal twins (see www.YourMilkonDrugs.com.) The growth hormone is banned in most industrialized nations, including Canada, the EU, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. But under Michael Taylor, it was approved in the US, without labeling.
As more and more consumers here learn about the health risks of the drug, they shift their purchases to brands that voluntarily label their products as not using rbGH. Consumer rejection of rbGH hit a tipping point a couple of years ago, and since then it has been kicked out of milk from Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Kroger, Subway, and at least 40 of the top 100 dairies. In 2007, Monsanto desperately tried to reverse the trend by asking the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to label their products as free from rbGH. Both agencies flatly refused the company's request.
But Monsanto turned to an ally, Dennis Wolff, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. Wolff used his position to single-handedly declare rbGH-free labels illegal in his state. Such a policy would make it impossible for national dairy brands to declare their products rbGH-free, since they couldn't change packaging just for Pennsylvania. Wolff's audacious move so infuriated citizens around the nation, the outpouring caused the governor to step in and stop the prohibition before it took effect.
Dennis Wolff, according to unbossed.com, is being considered for Obama's USDA Secretary.
Although Pennsylvania did not ultimately ban rbGH-free labels, they did decide to require companies who use the labels to also include a disclaimer sentence on the package, stating that the according to the FDA there is no difference between milk from cows treated with rbGH and those not treated. In reality, this sentence contradicts the FDA's own scientists. (Is this sounding all too familiar?) Even according to Monsanto's own studies, milk from treated cows has more pus, antibiotics, bovine growth hormone, and IGF-1. Blatantly ignoring the data, a top FDA bureaucrat wrote a "white paper" urging companies that labeled products as rbGH-free to also use that disclaimer on their packaging. The bureaucrat was Michael Taylor.
Betting on biotech is "Bad-idea virus"
For several years, politicians around the US were offering money and tax-breaks to bring biotech companies into their city or state. But according to Joseph Cortright, an Oregon economist who co-wrote a 2004 report on this trend, "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable. This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials." He said it "remains a money-losing, niche industry."
One politician who caught a bad case of the bad-idea virus was Tom Vilsack, Iowa's governor from 1998-2006. He was co-creator and chair of the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership in 2000 and in 2001 the Biotech Industry Organization named him BIO Governor of the Year.
Tom Vilsack was considered a front runner for Obama's USDA secretary. Perhaps the outcry prompted by Vilsack's biotech connections was the reason for his name being withdrawn.
Change, Truth, Hope
I don't know Barack Obama's position on GMOs. According to a November 23rd Des Moines Register article, "Obama, like Bush, may be Ag biotech ally", there are clues that he has not been able to see past the biotech lobbyist's full court spin.
- His top scientific advisers during the campaign included Sharon Long, a former board member of the biotech giant Monsanto Co., and Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate who co-chaired a key study of genetically engineered crops by the National Academy of Sciences back in 2000. - [Obama] said biotech crops "have provided enormous benefits" to farmers and expressed confidence "that we can continue to modify plants safely."
On the other hand, Obama may have a sense how pathetic US GMO regulations are, since he indicated that he wants "stringent tests for environmental and health effects" and "stronger regulatory oversight guided by the best available scientific advice."
There is, however, one unambiguous and clear promise that separates Obama from his Bush and Clinton predecessors.
President Obama will require mandatory labeling of GMOs.
Favored by 9 out of 10 Americans, labeling is long overdue and is certainly cause for celebration.
(I am told that now Michael Taylor also favors both mandatory labeling and testing of GMOs. Good going Michael; but your timing is a bit off.)
Please sign a petition asking President Obama to make his GMO labeling plan comprehensive and meaningful.
Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html

You're Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It's Not So!

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith

The world's leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices.
Posted: July 23, 200






Read More: Accelerated Aging , Allergies , American Academy Of Environmental Medicine , Asthma , Bovine Growth Hormone , Cancer , Dennis Wolff , Dr. P. M. Bhargava , Fda , FDA Policy , Food And Drug Administration ,Food Labels , Food Related Illness , Food Safety , Food Safety Czar , Food Supply , Gastrointestinal Disorder ,GE Foods , Genetically Engineered , Genetically Engineered Foods , Genetically Modified Foods , Genetically Modified Organisms , GM Foods , GMO Labels , Gmos , Governor Ed Rendell , Igf-1 , Immune Problems ,Infertility , Inflammation , Insulin Regulation , Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 , International Dairy Foods Association, Michael Taylor. Safety Testing , Milk , Milk Supply , Monsanto , Multiple Chronic Illness , Ohio Governor Strickland , Organic , Organic Trade Association , Pennsylvania Secretary Of Agriculture , President Obama ,Rbgh , Rbst , Revolving Door , Substantially Equivalent , Green News

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/858
The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.
Here's the back story.
When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply -- the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods --secret documents now reveal that the experts werevery concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.
But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.

Dangerous Food Safety Lies
When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to "different risks" than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.
This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them -- companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.
GMOs were rushed onto our plates in 1996. Over the next nine years, multiple chronic illnesses in the US nearly doubled -- from 7% to 13%. Allergy-related emergency room visits doubled between 1997 and 2002 while food allergies, especially among children, skyrocketed. We also witnessed a dramatic rise in asthma, autism, obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders, and certain cancers.
In January of this year, Dr. P. M. Bhargava, one of the world's top biologists, told me that after reviewing 600 scientific journals, he concluded that the GM foods in the US are largely responsible for the increase in many serious diseases.
In May, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine concluded that animal studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between GM foods and infertility, accelerated aging, dysfunctional insulin regulation, changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system, and immune problems such as asthma, allergies, and inflammation
In July, a report by eight international experts determined that the flimsy and superficial evaluations of GMOs by both regulators and GM companies "systematically overlook the side effects" and significantly underestimate "the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others."
The Fox Guarding the Chickens
If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.
This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America's food safety czar. What have we done?
The Milk Man Cometh
While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90's, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto'sgenetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST) -- injected into cows to increase milk supply.
The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitalshave taken stands against rbGH. A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk -- unless it was organic and therefore untreated.
Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDA's approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But it was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.
Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.
Taylor's disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto's own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor's white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.
Will Monsanto's Wolff Also Guard the Chickens?
As consumers learned that rbGH was dangerous, they refused to buy the milk. To keep their customers, a tidal wave of companies has publicly committed to not use the drug and to label their products as such. Monsanto tried unsuccessfully to convince the FDA and FTC to make it illegal for dairies to make rbGH-free claims, so they went to their special friend in Pennsylvania -- Dennis Wolff. As state secretary of agriculture, Wolff unilaterally declared that labeling products rbGH-free was illegal, and that all such labels must be removed from shelves statewide. This would, of course, eliminate the label from all national brands, as they couldn't afford to create separate packaging for just one state.
Fortunately, consumer demand forced Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell to step in and stop Wolff's madness. But Rendell allowed Wolff to take a compromised position that now requires rbGH-free claims to also be accompanied by Taylor's FDA disclaimer on the package.
President Obama is considering Dennis Wolff for the top food safety post at the USDA. Yikes!
Rumor has it that the reason why Pennsylvania's governor is supporting Wolff's appointment is to get him out of the state -- after he "screwed up so badly" with the rbGH decision. Oh great, governor. Thanks.
Ohio Governor Gets Taylor-itus
Ohio not only followed Pennsylvania's lead by requiring Taylor's FDA disclaimer on packaging, they went a step further. They declared that dairies must place that disclaimer on the same panel where rbGH-free claims are made, and even dictated the font size. This would force national brands to re-design their labels and may ultimately dissuade them from making rbGH-free claims at all. The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association filed a lawsuit against Ohio. Although they lost the first court battle, upon appeal, the judge ordered a mediation session that takes place today. Thousands of Ohio citizens have flooded Governor Strickland's office with urgent requests to withdraw the states anti-consumer labeling requirements.
Perhaps the governor has an ulterior motive for pushing his new rules. If he goes ahead with his labeling plans, he might end up with a top appointment in the Obama administration.

To hear what America is saying about GMOs and to add your voice, go to our new non-GMO Facebook Group.
Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods from Chelsea Green Publishing. Smith worked at a GMO detection laboratory, founded the Institute for Responsible Technology, and currently lives in Iowa—surrounded by genetically modified corn and soybeans. For more information, visit Chelsea Green.
INDEX: 
KEY FDA DOCUMENTS REVEALING 
(1) HAZARDS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS--AND 
(2) FLAWS WITH HOW THE AGENCY MADE ITS POLICY
  Alliance for Bio-Integrity     HOME
About the Documents 
You will see scanned reproductions (exact copies) of some of the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) internal memoranda about the hazards of genetically engineered foods.  These documents became available through the Alliance for Bio-Integrity's lawsuit (Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al., vs. Shalala, et al.) to gain mandatory safety testing and labeling of these foods.  The large numbers on the bottom of each page (i.e. 18952) are the Administrative Record (A.R.) numbers affixed by the FDA.
How to View and Print 
In order to make these documents easily accessible, we've saved each page in two different formats: one intended for viewing on your monitor using your internet browser (click on "View Document"), and one formatted in PDF suitable for printing onto a  8 1/2" X 11" sheet of paper (click on "Print Document").
To print the PDF files you will need free software called Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you don't already have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it here.  Depending on your computer and internet connection, downloading Adobe Acrobat Reader may take up to fifteen minutes.  You may find that the best way to view and read the documents on your monitor is to select the PDF files; they are larger files and therefore may take slightly longer to download, but the Acrobat Reader enables you to enlarge or reduce the image size to fit your monitor. 
 
 A.  FDA Scientists Discuss Various Safety Concerns
  1. Comments from Dr. Linda Kahl, FDA compliance officer, to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator, about the Federal Register document "Statement of Policy: Foods from Genetically Modified Plants."  Dated January 8, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  2.  
  3. Memorandum from Dr. Edwin J. Mathews to the Toxicology Section of the Biotechnology Working Group. Subject: "Analysis of the Major Plant Toxicants."  Dated October 28, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  4.  
  5. Memorandum from Dr. Samuel I. Shibko to Dr. James Maryanski, FDA Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Revision of Toxicology Section of the Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Plants." Dated January 31, 1992. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  6.  
  7. Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: the "Biotechnology Draft Document, 2/27/92." Dated March 6, 1992. (5 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  8.  
  9. Comments from Dr. Louis J. Pribyl re: "... the March 18, 1992 Version of the Biotechnology Document." Dated March 18, 1992. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document 
  10. Comments from Division of Food Chemistry and Technology and Division of Contaminants Chemistry. Subject: "Points to Consider for Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Foods.  Supplemental Information."  Dated November 1, 1991. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  11.  
  12. Memorandum from Dr. Mitchell Smith, Head, Biological and Organic Chemistry Section, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Comments on Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology, Dec. 12, 1991 draft."  Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  13.  
  14. Letter from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Bill Murray, Chairman of the Food Directorate, Canada.  Subject: the safety assessment of foods and food ingredients developed through new biotechnology.  Dated October 23, 1991. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  15.  
  16. Comments from Dr. Carl B. Johnson on the "draft statement of policy 12/12/91."  Dated January 8, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  17.  
  18. Memorandum from Dr. Gerald B. Guest, Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine, to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Regulation of Transgenic Plants--FDA Draft Federal Register Notice on Food Biotechnology."  Dated February 5, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  19.  
    B.  Specific Objections to Use of Antibiotic-Resistant Marker Genes
  20. Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Dr. Murray Lumpkin.  Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Marker Gene in Tomatoes."  (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  21.  
  22. Memorandum from Dr. Murray Lumpkin to Dr. Bruce Burlington.  Subject: "The tomatoes that will eat Akron." Dated December 17, 1992. (7 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  23.  
  24. Memorandum from Dr. Albert Sheldon to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Use of Kanamycin Resistance Markers in Tomatoes."  Dated March 30, 1993.  (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  25.  
    C.  Safety Questions Raised by Tests on the Flavr Savr Tomato--the Most Thoroughly Tested      Bioengineered Food
  26. Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl.  Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato:" ... "Pathology Branch's Evaluation of Rats with Stomach Lesions From Three Four-Week Oral (Gavage) Toxicity Studies" ... "and an Expert Panel's Report."  Dated June 16, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  27. Memorandum from Robert J. Scheuplein, Ph.D. to the FDA Biotechnology Coordinator and others. Subject: "Response to Calgene Amended Petition." Dated October 27, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  28.  
  29. Memorandum from Dr. Carl B. Johnson to Dr. Linda Kahl & Others.  Subject: "Flavr Savr(TM) tomato; significance of pending DHEE question." Dated Dec 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  30.  
  31. Memorandum from Dr. Fred Hines to Dr. Linda Kahl.  Subject: "FLAVR SAVR Tomato"... "Pathology Branch's Remarks to Calgene Inc.'s Response to FDA Letter of June 29, 1993."  Dated December 10, 1993. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  32.  
    D.  Additional Evidence of Improprieties In The Formation Of FDA Policy On 
        Bioengineered Foods
  33. Note from Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator, to Mr. Michael Taylor.  Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Development."  Dated October 7, 1993. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document
  34.  
  35. Document titled "FDA REGULATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM GENETICALLY ALTERED PLANTS: POINTS TO CONSIDER"  Not dated. (3 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  36.  
  37. Memorandum from Dr. James Maryanksi, Biotechnology Coordinator, to the Director of the Center for Applied Nutrition.  Subject: "FDA Task Group on Food Biotechnology: Progress Report 2." Dated August 15, 1991. (1 page) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  38.  
  39. Memorandum from David Kessler, Commissioner of Food & Drugs.  Subject: "FDA Proposed Statement of Policy Clarifying the Regulation of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Plants--DECISION." Dated March 20, 1992. (4 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  40.  
  41. Letter from Terry Medley, J.D. (of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), to Dr. James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator.  Subject: "Comments on FDA Draft Statement of Policy on foods derived from new plant varieties, including plants derived by recombinant DNA techniques. Dated April 2, 1992. (5 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

  42.  
  43. Note from Eric Katz (Dept. of Health & Human Services) to John Gallivan.  Subject: "Food Biotechnology Policy Statement."  Dated March 27, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary -View Document - Print Document
  44. Memorandum from James B. MacRae, Jr. (of the Office of Management and Budget), for C. Boyden Gray (President Bush’s White House counsel).  Subject: "FDA Food Biotechnology Policy."  Dated March 21, 1992. (2 pages) View Our Summary - View Document - Print Document

    1.  
      Alliance for Bio Integrity 
    http://biointegrity.org/FDAdocs/01/view2.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-dang_b_147188.html








Ex BBC Reporter and BBC Television Host David Icke Speaks out on...INLNews.com

Barrack Obama: the naked emperor-by David Icke
I  added this appendix to my book  '..The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy ( and how to fix it)....' about Barrack Obama in November 2008 as I watched with dismay as vast numbers of people across the world, including many who should know better, have been duped by the Mind-game called Operation Obama. Even people with some understanding of the conspiracy have said things like: '...Well, at least it's great to see such a new spirit of hope'. No, he's not Bush - he's potentially far more dangerous; and what is the use of a spirit of 'hope' if it's based on a lie? In fact, what use is 'hope' at all?
Obama's wife, Michelle, who I wouldn't trust to tell me the date in a calender factory, said that 'everything begins and ends with hope'. Utter nonsense. Hope is a meaningless emotion because its fruits are always in the future and. by definition, never in the NOW. Hope is like riding a carousel horse; no matter how fast you go you never get closer to the one at the front. The idea, however, is to persuade you to stay on the horse, despite the inevitable disappointment, in the 'hope' that things will change. But they don't because the very system is designed to prevent it. That's the way 'hope' is employed by the dastardly and devious - take the crap we are giving you 
now in the 'hope' that thinks will get better (but we know they won't). Barrack Obama is a purveyor of 'hope' because his masters want the people to accept what they are given now in the 'hope that good times will come' ( just a fairy tale).
Just do what we demand, oops, sorry. Barrack demands, and in return he'll inspire you to hope that it is all leading to the Promised Land. It isn't, but, by the time you realise that, it's too late. What terrifies the manipulators is that people will abandon hope, as a future, sometime-never projection, and start to demand fairness, justice and freedom now. To avoid this nightmare they need to keep those desires as something to aspire to. not to actually have. Thus, their man, Obama, sells 'hope' as a diversion technique, a holding position, to keep the masses from truly rebelling. We have no job, no food on the table and our home has been foreclosed, but at least we have 'hope'. Phew, thank goodness for that.
                                                                                             
                               
'....I'm hungry, mum, can I have some hope please?....'
                                       '...I'm so sorry, darling, you can't have hope today. only tomorrow - hope is always tomorrow...'

                '...So will I eat tomorrow, mum?......'
 '....We can hope so now, dear, but when we get to tomorrow, we cam only hope it;s the next day...'

          ...... on and on it goes. That's how 'hope'works. Or rather doesn't....


Obama's predominant mantra is 'change'. Indeed, his massively-funded, record breaking campaign was based on that one word - 
change.

This is a technique used by Bill Clinton and many others and it is highly effective because, at any point, the system ensures that most people are not happy with the way life is. So, when you don't like the status quo, 'change' cam be a potent message, even if, like Obama, you don't say what it means. It has been vital to his success and that of his controllers, that he has never specified what his 'hope', 'change', and that other mind-control trigger-word, 'believe',  were referring to in terms of policy and the way society in general will be effected. Hope for 
what? Change what? Believe in what? to answer those questions with specifics would have been fatal to Obama's appeal.
I studied the military/government mind-controlled programmes and techniques in great detail for many years during the late- 1990's and across 2000, and the Obama 'phenomenon' is the most blatant mass-mind control operation you could wish to see. At its core the plan has been to make Obama the focus of everything you hope for, believe in, and want to change. This is why it has been crucial for him not to specify and detail what is meant in the context of the Obama mind-game. They mean whatever 
you decide they mean or want them to mean.
The idea is for you to project all that you stand for onto him and so he becomes the symbol of you and how you see the world. Specifics would destroy that 'I am whatever you want me to be' scenario and so you don't get any detail, just 'hope', 'change', and 'believe'.
They don't want him to be seen only as 'the messiah', they also want him to be Abraham Lincoln, JFK, or Buddha - anyone you choose to project on him, for he is a blank page, blank screen and empty suit. Obama is a make-your-own, do it-yourself leader, a projection of your own mind. ( If you are still asleep, that is. If you are in any way awake, he's an open book.)
There is no more powerful way of stimulating people than to tell them what they want to hear and keep shtum about anything they wouldn't like. Double-glazing salesmen are trained to pick up in general conversation what their target likes and dislikes and to respond accordingly in the way the product is sold. The technique is simply to respond accordingly in the way the product is sold. the technique is simply to tell the potential buyer what you have gleaned they want to be told. Obama, comes from the same stable, but on a massively bigger scale and with a whole network of advisors and controllers steeped in the art of manipulating minds, opinions and actions. Obama's written-for-him speeches are not from the heart, but from the autocue. The 'heart' bit comes from expensive training and his Bill Clintoneque ability to '...mean it when he says it...', a state of delivery that goes beyond mere acting. 
      Tony Blair was trained in the same way, But if you take a step back and look at these people dispassionately you can clearly see the techniques they consciously employ. 
Blair is the most blatant fraud in the way he delivers a line, stops in mid-sentence for emphasis and looks down for fake emotional effect. Obama is a little more slick, but, from where I have been looking this past year, not much. You can see his mind working, turning between autocue screens to his left and right, then straight down the camera for his key messages. From-the-heart orators don't do that; they are too immersed in what they are feeling and saying to give even a passing thought to where they are looking or how the line is delivered. I worked in television for more than a decade, often reading autocue while a director spoke in my ear telling me what cameras to look at.  I have, since the early 1990's, spoken my truth on public stages across the world. I know, therefore, the difference between artificial autocue delivery and body language and talking from the heart without a script. Obama, I repeat, is coming from the autocue, not the heart. Obama's speeches are a mass of mind-control techniques and Neuro-Linquistic Progamming, or NLP, and they are carefully constructed to implant beliefs and perceptions into the mind of the viewer.
As I keep emphasising, the whole Obama circus is an exercise in mass mind control and it has been so successful because so many people live their lives in a permanent state of trace. All of which brings me to the parallels with Nazi-Germany, fascist Italy and similar regimes throughout history (actually in reality a Hi-Story written by the Illuminati Script Writers that have written the Hi-Story the way their master have told them to write the Hi-Story).
Obama will not look like Hitler, nor sound like Hitler, but the themes are just the same. Germany was in a terrible state economically and militarily in the 1930's in the aftermath of the First World War and the reparations inflicted on the country by the Rothschild/illuminati-controlled Versailles 'Peace' Conference in 1919. From amid the chaos came the man that Germans saw then in much the same way that so many see Obama today. His name was Adolph Hitler and his oratory and rhetoric, again supported by the ritualistic presentation founded on mind-control techniques, made him appear to be the German 'messiah', the German Obama. Hitler promised 'change', 'hope' and something to 'believe in' amidst the consequences of war and financial collapse. He spoke to vats rallies of adoring followers. As the writer Webster Traply points out, fascism in its true sense is not just a police state imposed by a tiny hierarchy. It might end up like that, but first it is brought to power by a mass movement from within the people who have no understanding of what the 'change', 'hope' and 'believe' they are being offered in reality means. they just know that they want some,. because, as with Obama, they make it mean what they want it to mean. Only later to they see, to their horror, what they have signed up for.
    Obama is far more dangerous than Boy Bush because he can sell a line to those who are in the trance while Boy Bush could not do that on anything like the same scale. Bush was a transparent idiot with no communication skills who need massive fraud at the polls to get officially 'elected' He could never be the figurehead to inspire a mass movement of the people to support some vacuous 'hope', 'change' and'believe' when they don't even know what those words are supposed to mean. But Obama clearly can, because he has. One of 'his' (his controllers') prime targets are the young, just as they were with the Nazis and the Hitler Youth Movement, In line with this time, the WorldNetDaily website reported:
...'....the official website of President-Elect Barack Obama, Change.gov, originally announced that Obama would 'require' all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs, but after the flurry of bloggs protested children being drafted into Obama's proposed youth corps, the website;s wording was softened... Originally, under the tab "America Serves", Change.gov read, "President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under serviced schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps...."Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year," the site announced.'

Obama said in a speech in July 2008 in Colorado Springs that he wanted to see a 'civilian national security force' that would be as powerful and well-funded as the Marine, Navy and Air Force. As Joseph Farah, founder of WorldNetDaily, wrote:

'..If we're going to create some kind of national police force as bib, powerful and well-funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn't this rather a big deal? I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on the military, How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create some kind of massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy. Marines and Air Force put together? Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security force bigger and more expensive that that? If not, why did he say it? What did he mean?...'
Obama meant, amid the flowery words, that he's not in favour of either peace or freedom. He is a front-man demagogue for the same force that controlled Boy Bush, Clinton, Father Bush, Regan, Carter ad infinitum; but the difference is that he has been hyped to such hysterical proportions that he will be allowed to get away with far more that they were, at least until reality dawns on the mass ranks of his hypnotised supporters. And, clearly, that could take some time. When I was a journalist 30 year ago, I cam across a technique that some tabloid newspaper reporters would use to get someone to speak with them. They would work in pairs with the first one knocking on the door of some distressed family who didn't want to talk with the media. He would tell them he was from a newspaper he didn't really work for and treat them with aggression and contempt to make  them even more upset. He would then leave and his colleague would knock on the door, tell them the real newspaper he was from, and act like Mr. Nice Guy. He would say that he understood completely how upsetting the other man must have been, but 'if you will only speak to me exclusively I will make sure that the other man, nor anyone like him, will bother you again'. They usually agreed and the scam was complete. Much the same think is happening with regard to Bush and Obama. The Neoconservative 'Republican' wing of the Illuminati controlled Bush for 8 years and led the country into foreign wars and financial chaos ( bad guy/problem); now the "Domocratic' wing, led by the infamous Zbigniew Brzezinski has brought forth the 'saviour', Barack Obama, to lead us into the sunshine with 'hope' and 'change' (good guy/solution). Hence even some more aware people say: 'At least he's not Bush'.

Apart from the unspecified 'hope', 'change' and 'believe', few have any idea what Obama's policies will be. Public perception comes from having an 'image' of him, or a self-projection, not the fine print because Obama doesn't do fine print until the votes are cast and even then he will hide it in his windbag words. There is an 'image' that Obama is against war, but no he's not.  Obama says he's against the invasion of Iraq, though we'll see what he does about that in office. How can a man calling for more troops, including European troops, to be sent to Afganistan be against war? Obama has also said he is prepared to bomb Pakistan and use military force to stop Iran building nuclear weapons. Obama isn't against war at all and. If Obama's controllers have their way, Obama will engage the US in even more foreign conflicts with the troops sent to their deaths, and the deaths of their targets, on a waive of oratory from the dark suit with the black face who would never go where Obama's sending them. Obama claims to be a uniter, which is exactly what Bush said about himself before he came to office, but unity in and of itself is not the issue. Nazi Germany had unity in the early years of the war, but was that a good thing? What matters is what the unity is designed to achieve and Obama's much-vaunted 'unity' is to 'inspire' a mass movement to support the Orwellian plans of the Illuminati. Obama's constant rhetoric about 'bringing people together' can be used to justify the 'coming together' of the United States, Canada and Mexico in the North American Union; it can be used to unite the believers in their opposition and condemnation of non-believers, which is precisely what happened in Nazi Germany with the book burning and violent suppression of those who challenged the Hitler regime. The potential of Obama Mania is endless when it comes to selling fascism as 'hope', 'change', 'freedom' and a 'New America', or 'New World' (Order). Bush and Cheney were transparent warmongers and would always have struggled to bring in the draft, the compulsory community service fro middle school, high school and college students and creating a people's army in America. 
That's why I say Obama is far more dangerous to freedom than Bush.....David Icke
                                                  In the last eight years Bush could only get part of the way to fascism - Obama has the potential to finish the job, for all the reasons I have mentioned. 

You only have to look at the cabal behind Obama, and those he has already appointed to his administration team, to see what Obama's 'change' is truly planned to be. Obama's mentor, svengali and main controller is Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, and the co-founder, with David Rockefeller, of the Illuminati's Tirlateral Commission, Brzezinski has admitted publicly that he began to fund and train what he would call today terrorists in Afghanistan to oppose the Soviet-controlled government in the capital, Kabul, in the late 1970's. The idea, he said, was to entice the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan to protect the Kabul Regime and thus give the rival superpower 'their Vietnam'. The plan worked at the cost of a million Afghan lives during the Soviet occupation from 1979 to 1989, a consequence that troubles Brzezinski not at all. Brzezinski's 'freedom fighters' would become known as the 'Mujahideen' and later the Taliban and what is claimed to be 'Al-Qaeda'. This is the man behind 'anti-war', Barack Obama, It was common knowledge that President Carter would do nothing involving foreign policy without the okay from Brzezinski, the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission which chose Carter for president. The Trilateral Commission and the wider Brzezinski network, including Illuminati fronts like the Ford Foundation, have chosen Obama and the situation will be the same. Brzezinski will call the shots; Obama's job is simply to sell them to the people. this is rather alarming when you think that Brzezinski wants to trigger a war involving Russia and China. 'Obama's' policies come straight from Brzezinski's books. Here is one Brzezinski quote you might recognise and it was made before Obama ran for president:

'.... Need social reassessment...can be encouraged by deliberate civic education that stresses the notion of service to a higher cause than oneself. As some have occasionally urged, a major step in that direction would be the adoption of an obligatory period of national service for every young adult, perhaps involving a variety of congressionally approved domestic or foreign good works...'
Now where have I heard that before?
As an Illuminati operative, Brzezinski's aim is to create a world government, central bank, current and army - a global dictatorship - underpinned by a micro-chipped population connected to a global computer'satellite system.  He wrote a book in 1970,  Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era, in which he described the global society that he and the Illuminati seek to impose:

'..The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional value. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. There files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities...'

He also said in the same book nearly 40 year ago:

'..Today we are witnessing the emergence of transnational elites...(Whose) ties cut across national boundaries... It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook.... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty ...Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with soem consequent risk to the present relatively favourable American position....'
And what does his puppet, Obama, now say that Americans have to bring about 'change'? 'Make sacrifices'. As Mrs Demagogue, Michelle, said:

' We need a different leadership because our souls are broken. We need to be inspired ...to make the sacrifices that are needed to push us to a different place..'

You can bet that this will include sacrificing more sovereignty and freedom on the road to the global dictatorship described by Brzezinski for decades. Brzezinski's son, Mark, was an 'advisor' to the Obama campaign (doing what his father told him) and, in line with the American one-party-state, his other son, Ian, was foreign policy advisor to the McCain campaign (doing what his father told him). Brzezinski's daughter, Mika, reported the campaign for MSNBC television. Obama has been the chosen one for a long time, a fact known only to a few in the deep inner circle, and his relationship with Brzezinski almost certainly goes back to the start of the 1980's when he attended the Ivy League, and long-time Illuminati, Columbia University where Brzezinski was head of the Institute for Communist Affairs. Obama simply will not talk in any detail about this period. And a question: Does anyone really believe that someone, 'a man of the people', would simply appear from apparently nowhere to run the slickest and best-funded presidential campaign in American history ( Hi-Story) ? Obama was chosen long ago by those who wish to enslave the very people that Obama says he wants to 'set free'

Then there is the Jewish financier, George Soros, the multi-billionaire associate of  Brzezinski and closely  involved with the funding and marketing of Obama. Soros is a former board member of the Illuminati's Council on Forign Relations. In short, he is a major insider. You can certainly see the Soros/Brzezinski techniques in the Obama 'revolution' in the United States. It was the complex and secretive network of Soros foudations and organisations, connected to the intelligence agencies of the USA and Israel, that trained and funded students in the Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere in the art of mass protest and overthrowing governments. these manufactured protests were sold to the world as 'people' revolutions', but it just happened that when they were over and the old regime was removed the new leaders were those waiting in the wings all along - the puppets of Soros, Brzezinski and their associated networks.
Obama is just more of the same, a big smile with strings attached, and controlled completely by the Illuminati networks that chose him, sold him and provided his record funding. It was they who kept Obama's many skeletons under wraps and will continue to do so as long as Obama jumps to their bidding. Obama;s just another Banker's moll prostituting himself for fame and power, and that's why Obama supported the grotesque bail-out of the banking system and why he will always put their interests before the people. Obama's financial advisors are straight from Wall Street 'A' list, including Paul Voker (Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group), the head of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 and Illuminati to his fingertips. Another, the Zionist Biderberger Tomothy Geithner, was appointed by Obama to be his Treasury Secretary, Geithner was the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the most powerful in the private 'Federal' Reserve cartel that masquerades as America's 'central bank', and he is a former emplyee of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the notorious Kissinger Associates. Obama's Treasury team locks into the inner circle around the Zionist Robert Rubin, the Director and senior Counselor of Citi-Group and co-chairman of the Counsel of Foreign relations. Rubin was treasury Secretary to Bill Clinton and was followed in that post by Larry Summers - another appointed to Obama's team of 'change'. Summers is a fanatical supporter of 'free trade' (freedom to exploit) and 'globalisation' (global dictatorship) and he wrote a memo in 1991, while chief economist to the World Bank, saying that the bank should dump toxic waste in poor countries because the costs of ensuing ill-health and death would be lower. When the memo was made public, Brazil's then Secretary of the Environment, Jose Lutzenburger, told Summers: ' Your reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane.... Your thoughts (provide) a concrete example of the arrogant ignorance of many conventional 'economists' concerning the nature of the world we live in.... If the World bank keeps you as vice president it will lose all creditability. To me it would confirm what I often said ... the best thing that could happen would be for Bank to disappear.' Lutzenburger was dismissed shortly after writing this letter while the horrific Summers was made US Treasury Secretary by Bill Clinton and now he has been appointed to head the National Economic Council by Mr. 'change', 'hope' and 'believe' Obama. It's all a fairy story. Bloomberg.com reported that the Center for American Progress (CAP), housed just three blocks from the White House, has become a major source for policy initiatives for the Obama Democratic Party. Who funds the Center for American progress? George Soros. It is simply the Neocon Project for the New American Century and the American Enterprise Institute  under another name. Those two organisations developed and dictated the Bush policy of war and suppression and the 'CAP' and other like it will do the same for Obama. The CAP will fit and Obama will wear it.

In fact, except in name and rhetoric, there is no difference in them between the regimes of Bush and Obama. Bush was dictated through Illuminati 'think tanks' and so is Obama. Bush was sorrounded by slavish pursuers of Israel interests and so is Obama. Mr. 'change' has pledged his unquestioning support for Israel to the point of 'pass the sick bag' and his vice-president, Joe Biden, is a vehement Zionist who makes a virtue of saying he will support Israel in all circumstances. Obama has appointed the arch Zionist Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and another super Zionist Jew, Dennis Ross, to be his Middle East Policy advisor. God help the Palestinians. Ross also served in the Bill Clinton and father George Bush administrations. Oh, plenty of 'change' there, then. Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago-born Congressman, is the son of Benjamin M. Emanuel, who was a member of the murderous Jewish terrorist organisation, Irgun, which helped to bomb and terrorise Israel into existence. The Open Secrets website reports that Emanuel was to top House recipient in 2008 for election contributions form 'hedge funds, private equity firms and large securities/investment industry', Emanuel was also appointed by Bill Clinton tot he board of the mortgage giant Freddie Mac in 2000 and his tenure coincided with a stream of scandals and finacial irregularities. It famously had to be bailed out by the taxpayer amid the sub-prime mortgage debacle.
A close friend of Emanuel is the Chicago-based Zionist, David Axelrod, who ran Obama's election campaign and will no doubt be highly influential in the Obama administration. Axelron is a veteran of Chicago politics, one of the most corrupt political systems in the world. David Axelrod worked for many Chicago mayors in the 1990's and on Obama's senate campaign in 2004. Bill Clinton took his Arkansas cabal to Washington when Clinton became president in 1993 and Obama is uploading his chicago mob and handing them key positions of national power and influence. And these guys don't take prisoners. All of this may be many things, none of them pleasant, but 'change' it isn't. 
Obama is a monumental fraud who talks a good story, but lives a very different one. He won his first political office as a state senator in Chicago in 1996, not through the power of politics, but by coldly abusing
 the electoral process. Instead of running against his opponents and letting the people decide, he had his cronies challenge hundreds of names on the nomination papers of his democratic primary rivals until they were forced off the ballot by technicalities. Obama then ran unopposed. One of them, Gha-is Askia, says, that Obama's behaviour belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights:

'...Why say you're for new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates? Obama talks about honour and democracy, but what honour is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?....'

Why? Because Obama would probably have lost and Obama isn't interested in losing by playing fair. Obama wants to win by any means necessary. the only voter-right he's interested in is the right to vote for Obama. Obama is a classically corrupt main-chancer spawned from the Chicago political cesspit. His close connections, therefore, to seriously dodgy 'businessmen' and fraudsters like the now-jailed slum landlord Tony Rezko are exactly what you would expect. But for now no scale of evidence will stop swooning Obama zombies from believing the hype or burst their reality bubble. That is going to take hard experience and it could take some time and a lot of disappointment before they are released from the clutches of cognitive dissonance and have to admit to themselves they have been had. It is the same for all the black people who voted for what they thought was the first black president when, in truth, he is a man in a black mask representing the interests of the white-faced Illuminati cabal, the very families and networks that ran the salve trade. I don't want to be the bringer of bad news or the thwarter of dreams, but honesty demands it. The man is a trickster controlled by super-tricksters. A sock puppet controlled by bigger sock puppets who serve an even greater and darker evil. To Obama's masters, Obama is just a means to an end and it it suits them to assassinate Obama to trigger civil war and upheaval in the United States, then that is what they will do.

OH dear Oprah, how will you cope when reality dawns? but, then will it ever?
I can understand the appeal of Obama because people want Obama to be what Obama claims to be, but Obama isn't. They are sick of the conflict, the corruption, the struggle we call 'life' and they want it all to change. But Obama's 'change' is illusory and represents only the continued transformation of society in the image envisaged by Orwell, We will see some apparently good things announced, like the closing of Guantanamo, to give the impression that Obama means what he says. But keep your eye on the ball and you'll see how the agenda of the global tyranny is introduced under the guise of Obama's 'Hope',  'change; 'believe', 'sacrifice' and 'coming together' . It could take two years, maybe much more, before cognitive dissonance ( lying to yourself) loses it;s current grip on the minds of the Obama faithful. Until then they will make endless excuses for Obama (lie to themselves) to keep the 'dream' alive.
But one day they will have to admit, by the power of the evidence before thee, that they bought a dream and got a nightmare. What a pity they can't see the obvious now and save themselves such painful disappointment.

The Question has now been asked......
Could HAARP have been used to help Obama win the 2012 USA Elections? 


Hurricane Sandy: Does it help President Obama politically?

By The Week's Editorial Staff | The Week
The deadly storm has upended the presidential race — and given the incumbent a potential advantage just a week before Election Day
With Hurricane Sandy barreling toward the East Coast, the presidential campaign has been virtually put on hold. President Obama and Mitt Romney have both canceled appearances in the heavily contested swing state of Virginia, as well as in other states, and early voting pushes in eastern states will likely grind to a halt. There's a very real possibility that Sandy, a mutant Frankenstorm of seemingly epic proportions, could "warp an election two years and $2 billion in the making," says Peter Baker at The New York Times. And as the campaigns pause to readjust under the storm's shadow, there could be some huge political benefits for the one candidate who actually has a job: The incumbent. Does Sandy help Obama politically?
Yes. Natural disasters are in the president's wheelhouse: "The beauty of being a president and a candidate is that when a monster storm stalks up the East Coast you can run over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and be seen as a president on the job," says Candy Crowley at CNN. "Which also works if you are reapplying." Romney, on the other hand, can't be seen campaigning amidst so much uncertainty, since "just the forecast of a potential disaster can make politics look small." Romney is "not in power," and "can't really do much" but wait and watch. 
"Sandy introduces big unknown into campaign"
SEE MORE: Why Republicans are booing Obama's Daily Show appearance
But the storm could easily backfire on Obama: "Does Obama have a natural advantage because he's president? The short answer: Yes," says Jonathan Allen at Politico. "The longer answer: Not if he makes an unforced error." George W. Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina "ranks among the worst blunders in modern presidential history," and a similarly incompetent reaction from Obama could doom him in the final days of the race. "As president, Obama's best politics are to simply do his job well." 
"Hurricane Sandy: 5 political questions"
Either way, the storm is already hurting Romney: "As Hurricane Sandy looms and flooding begins, the Republican presidential candidate's primary remarks are getting a second look," says Garance Franke-Ruta at The Atlantic. During a GOP debate, Romney "said America shouldn't be in the business of providing federal disaster relief and that it would be better for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's functions to be handled by individual states or even the private sector." That comment looks immensely short-sighted right about now. 
"Mitt Romney in 2011: 'We cannot afford' federal disaster relief"
SEE MORE: How good is President Obama's ground game?
View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week
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  • The List: The final push: What President Obama needs to do before Election Day
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Obama And Romney Hit Key US Swing States

Sky News 

Obama seems to have early vote lead in key states

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | Associated Press 
  • Play Video
    Obama and Romney appeal to swing state voters  2:43 | 165 views

  • Obama And Romney Hit Key US Swing States


Associated Press/David Goldman - Supporters spell out "Ohio" as they cheer for Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney, not pictured, as he speaks during a campaign event at
 The Square at Union Centre, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, in West Chester, Ohio. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama heads towardElection Day with an apparent lead over Republican Mitt Romneyamong early voters in key states that could decide the election. Obama's advantage, however, isn't as big as the one he had overJohn McCain four years ago, giving Romney's campaign hope that the former Massachusetts governor can erase the gap when people vote on Tuesday. More than 27 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until Election Day but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio — five states that could decide the election, if they voted the same way. Republicans have the edge in Colorado, which Obama won in 2008.
Obama dominated early voting in 2008, building up such big leads in Colorado, Florida, Iowa and North Carolina that he won each state despite losing the Election Day vote, according to voting data compiled by The Associated Press. "In 2008, the McCain campaign didn't have any mobilization in place to really do early voting," said Michael McDonald, an early voting expert at George Mason University who tallies voting statistics for the United States Elections Project. "This time around the Romney campaign is not making the same mistake as the McCain campaign did." McDonald said he sees a shift toward Republicans among early voters, which could make a difference in North Carolina, which Obama won by the slimmest of margins in 2008, only 14,000 votes. The Republican shift, however, might not be enough to wipe out Obama's advantage in Iowa and Nevada, which Obama won more comfortably in 2008. In Colorado, Florida and Ohio, get ready for a long night of vote counting on Tuesday. Romney's campaign aides say they are doing so much better than McCain did four years ago that Romney is in great shape to overtake Obama in many of the most competitive states.
"They are underperforming what their 2008 numbers were and we are overperforming where we were in 2008," said Rich Beeson, Romney's political director. "We feel very good heading into the Tuesday election." Obama's campaign counters that Romney can't win the presidency simply by doing better than McCain.
"It's not about whether or not they're doing better than John McCain did," said Jeremy Bird, Obama's national field director. "It's about whether or not they're doing better than us." About 35 percent of voters are expected to cast ballots before Tuesday, either by mail or in person. Voters always can cross party lines when they vote for any office, and there are enough independent voters in many states to swing the election, if enough of them vote the same way. Still, both campaigns are following the early voting numbers closely, using them to gauge their progress and plan their Election Day strategies. A look at early voting in the tightest states:
Colorado:  About 1.6 million people have voted, and Republicans outnumber Democrats 37 percent to 35 percent. Those numbers are a reversal from four years ago at this time. Inevitably, Obama won the early vote by 9 percentage points in 2008, giving him a big enough cushion to win the state, despite narrowly losing the Election Day vote. Early voting in Colorado is expected to account for about 80 percent of all votes cast, giving it more weight than in other states.
Florida: About 3.9 million people have voted, and 43 percent were Democrats and 40 percent were Republicans. For years ago at this time, Democratic early voters had a 9 percentage point lead over Republicans. Obama won Florida's early vote by 10 percentage points in 2008, getting 400,000 more early votes than McCain, enough to offset McCain's advantage on Election Day. In Florida, Republicans have historically done better among people who vote by mail, while Democrats have done better among people who vote early in person. For 2012, Florida's Republican-led Legislature reduced the number of in-person early voting days from 14 to eight. The Obama campaign responded by encouraging more supporters to vote by mail, and Democrats were able to narrow the gap among mail ballots. Democrats quickly took the lead among all early voters, once in-person early voting started. But the margins are slim. The Obama campaign acknowledges it must do better among Florida's Election Day voters than Obama did on 2008, when McCain won the Election Day vote by 5 percentage points.
Iowa: About 614,000 people have voted, already exceeding Iowa's total number of early votes in 2008. So far this year, 43 percent of early voters were Democrats and 32 percent were Republicans. Four years ago, Obama won the early vote in Iowa by a whopping 27 percentage points, 63 percent to 36 percent. McCain, meanwhile, won the Election Day vote by about 1,800 votes — less than a percentage point. Together, they added up to a 10-point victory for Obama. Romney's campaign argues that Democrats always do better among early voters in Iowa while Republicans do better among Election Day voters, even when President George W. Bush narrowly carried the state in 2004. Obama's campaign counters that with early voting on the rise, Romney will be left with fewer Election Day voters to make up the difference.
Nevada: About 628,000 people have voted, and 44 percent were Democrats and 37 percent were Republicans. Four years ago, Obama won Nevada's early vote big, 59 percent to 39 percent. Obama also won Nevada's Election Day vote on his way to a comfortable 13-point win over McCain. The Romney campaign argues that Obama isn't doing nearly as well among early voters in Nevada as he did in 2008. The Obama campaign argues that it doesn't have to.
North Carolina: About 2.5 million people have voted, and 48 percent of them were Democrats and 32 percent of them were Republicans. Four years ago at this time, Democrats had a slightly larger lead over Republicans, and Obama won the early vote by 11 percentage points.
Obama lost the Election Day Vote by 17 percentage points in 2008. But the early vote was much bigger than the Election Day vote, resulting in Obama's narrow win.
Obama's campaign cites the big lead for Democrats among early voters, while Romney's campaign argues that even a small shift toward the Republicans could flip the state to Romney.
Ohio: More than 1.6 million people have voted, and 29 percent were Democrats and 23 percent were Republicans. Forty-seven percent were unaffiliated, more than enough voters to swing the state to either candidate. Ohio may once again be pivotal in the race for the presidency. Unfortunately, Ohio's early voting data is limited. Party affiliation in Ohio is based on the last primary in which a voter participated, so new voters and those who don't vote in primaries are listed as unaffiliated. In 2008, Obama won Ohio by 5 percentage points.
Associated Press Senior Elections Research Coordinator Cliff Maceda contributed to this report.

Obama And Romney Hit Key US Swing States

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President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have criss-crossed the US visiting the handful of battleground states that could swing the presidential election in their favour. Opinion polls put the two men neck-and-neck in the popular vote with just two days left before polling, but the US electoral college system means the race will be decided in less than 10 states. The key battlegrounds are Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire. On Saturday both candidates were in the same Iowa town as they attempted to get out as many supporters as possible for Tuesday's vote, with the Republican candidate appealing to wavering voters by pledging to work with the Democrats to get things done. "I want you to reach across the street to the neighbour, who has that other sign in his front yard. And I'm going to reach across the aisle in Washington DC, to the politicians who are working for the other candidate," Mr Romney told about 2,000 supporters in Dubuque. Six hours later the president appeared, highlighting his successes while acknowledging that there was still work to be done to rebuild the economy. "After two years of campaigning and after four years as president, you know me by now," Mr Obama said. "You may not agree with every decision I made, you may have sometimes been frustrated with the pace of change. But you know that I say what I mean and I mean what I say." Earlier in the day in Ohio, Mr Obama again hammered his rival for opposing his bailout of the car industry and said his challenger tried to scare workers by saying inaccurately that Chrysler planned to shift jobs to China. About 12% of jobs in the key state are tied to vehicle manufacturing and the bailout has helped Mr Obama win over some of the white-working class voters who are backing Mr Romney elsewhere. He added the election was "not just a choice between two candidates or two parties, it's a choice between two different visions for America". Mr Romney will have a hard time winning the White House if he does not carry Ohio but a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Saturday showed him trailing by a statistically meaningless margin of just 1%. However, other polls in recent days have put him slightly further behind. Polls in the other key states also show there is little to separate the pair. The president started the day at the federal government's disaster-relief headquarters in Washington DC, where he received an update on the efforts to help the US East Coast recover from superstorm Sandy. He also visited Milwaukee and Wisconsin before ending the day in Bristow, Virginia – where he was joined by former president Bill Clinton. Mr Romney began on Saturday with a morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast. He then headed to Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In New Hampshire, he mocked Mr Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their "best revenge".
"Vote for 'revenge?'" the Republican candidate asked. "Let me tell you what I'd like to tell you: Vote for love of country. It is time we lead America to a better place."
Click on the below link for more on this subject
http://inlnews.com/JapaneseEarthquakeDebate.html 

High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program HAARP

described on the HAARP Website as a Premier Facility for the Study of  Ionosperic Physics and Radio Science
Questions of a technical nature may be submitted via e-mail to: 
Could The HAARP Project
Be For Mind Control?

Click on the below link for more on this subject
http://inlnews.com/JapaneseEarthquakeDebate.html  
by Nicholas Jones, nicholasjones99@yahoo.com
Earth is wrapped in a donut shaped magnetic field. Circular lines of flux continuously descend into the North Pole and emerge from the South Pole. The ionosphere, an electromagnetic-wave conductor, 100 kms above the earth, consists of a layer of electrically charged particles acting as a shield from solar winds. Natural waves are related to the electrical activity in the atmosphere and are thought to be caused by multiple lightning storms. Collectively, these waves are called ‘The Schumann Resonance´, the current strongest at 7.8 Hz. These are quasi-standing extremely low frequency (ELF) waves that naturally exist in the earth´s ‘electromagnetic´ cavity, the space between the ground and the ionosphere. These ‘earth brainwaves´ are identical to the spectrum of our brainwaves.
(1 hertz = 1 cycle per second, 1 Khz = 1000, 1 Mhz =1 million. A 1 Hertz wave is 186,000 miles long, 10 Hz is 18,600 miles. Radio-waves move at the speed of light.)
The Creator designed living beings to resonate to this natural frequency pulsation in order to evolve harmoniously. The ionosphere is being manipulated by US govt. scientists using an Alaskan transmitter called HAARP, (High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) which sends focused radiated power to heat up sections of the ionosphere, which bounces power down again. ELF waves from HAARP when targeted on areas can weather-engineer and create mood changes affecting millions. The intended wattage is 1,700 billion watts of power. A former govt. insider deduced they want to flip the world upside down. 64 elements in the ground modulate, with variation, the geomagnetic waves naturally coming from the ground.
The ‘earth´s natural brain rhythm´ above is balanced with these. These are the same minerals as the red blood corpuscles. There is a relation between the blood and geomagnetic waves. An imbalance between Schumann and geomagnetic waves disrupts biorhythms. These natural geomagnetic waves are being replaced by artificially created very low frequency (VLF) ground waves coming from GWEN Towers.
GWEN (Ground Wave Emergency Network) transmitters placed 200 miles apart across the USA allow specific frequencies to be tailored to the geomagnetic-field strength in each area, allowing the magnetic field to be altered. They operate in the VLF range, with transmissions between VLF 150 and 175 KHz. They also emit UHF waves of 225 - 400 MHz. The VLF signals travel by waves that hug the ground rather than radiating into the atmosphere. A GWEN station transmits circularly up to 300 miles, the signal dropping off sharply with distance. The entire GWEN system consists of, (depending on source of data), from 58 to an intended 300 transmitters spread across the USA, each with a tower 299-500 ft high. 300 ft copper wires in spoke like fashion fan out from the base of the system underground, interacting with the earth like a thin shelled conductor, radiating radio wave energy for very long distances through the ground. USA bathes in this magnetic field which rises to 500 ft, even going down to basements, so everyone is mind-controlled. The whole artificial ground-wave spreads out over USA like a web. It is easier to mind-control and hypnotize people who are bathed in an artificial electromagnetic-wave. (Covering the entire floor with aluminum and buying a CET cylinder from Nordic Living Water Systems helps.) GWEN transmitters have many different functions including controlling the weather, mind, behavior and mood control.
These work in conjunction with HAARP and the Russian Woodpecker transmitter, similar to HAARP. The Russians openly market a small version of their weather-engineering system called Elate, which can fine-tune weather patterns over a 200 mile area and have the same range as the GWEN unit. One operates at Moscow airport. The GWEN Towers shoot enormous bursts of energy into the atmosphere in conjuction with HAARP. The website www.cuttingedge.org wrote an expose of how the major floods of the Mid-West USA occurred in 1993.
Invisible enormous rivers of water, consisting of vapors that flow, move towards the poles in the lower atmosphere. They rival the flow of the Amazon River and are 420 to 480 miles wide and up to 4,800 miles long. They are 1.9 miles above the earth and have volumes of 340 lbs of water per second. There are 5 atmospheric rivers in each Hemisphere. A massive flood can be created by damming up one of these massive vapor rivers, causing huge amounts of rainfall to be dumped.
The GWEN Towers positioned along the areas north of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers were turned on for 40 days and 40 nights, probably mocking the Flood of Genesis. (This was in conjunction with HAARP, that creates a river of electricity flowing thousands of miles through the sky and down to the polar ice-cap, manipulating the jet-stream , like The Woodpecker.) These rivers flooded, causing agricultural losses of $12-15 billion. HAARP produces earthquakes by focusing on the fault lines. GWEN Towers are on the fault lines and volcanic areas of the Pacific Northeast.
http://inlnews.com/CovertDepopulationTactic.html 

1. INTERVIEW 1: GLOBAL DEPOPULATION AGENDA 5
2. INTERVIEW II: FUKUSHIMA, NO ACCIDENT 15
A New World Order Watch Media Publication (www.visionreportwatch.com) July 2012: Issue 25GLOBAL DEPOPULATION STRATEGY INTERVIEWhttp://WWW.VISIONREPORTWATCH.COM
Leuren Moret was an expert witness at the International Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan At Tokyo. She is an independent scientist and international expert on
radiation and public health issues. She is on the organizing committee of the World Committee on Radiation Risk, an organization of independent radiation
specialists, including members of the Radiation Committee in the EU parliament, the European Committee on Radiation Risk. She has been an environmental
commissioner for the City of Berkeley. Ms. Moret earned her BSc in geology at U.C. Davis in 1968 and her MA in Near Eastern studies from U.C. Berkeley.
She has travelled and conducted scientific research in 42 countries. She contributed to a scientific report on depleted uranium for the United Nations sub commission investigating the illegality of depleted uranium munitions. She has also conducted research concerning the impact on the health of the
environment and global public health from atmospheric testing, nuclear power plants, and depleted uranium. She has helped collect and measure radiation in 6000 baby teeth from children living around nuclear power plants, and helped The State of Louisiana (USA) pass the first state depleted uranium bill for mandatory testing of soldiers.
Her article "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" in the June 2004 World Affairs Journal was translated at the request of the Kremlin for distribution throughout the Russian government.
Moret describes herself as a whistle-blower on nuclear weapon research and states that her 2000 visit to the Peace Museums at Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed her life. Her efforts are focused on educating people about the negative impact of radiation on health and advocates against testing of nuclear
weapons.
 
However one of her most controversial conclusions was where she declared on March 21, 2011 that the “Japan Earthquake" and “accidents” that occurred March 11, 2011, were deliberate acts of tectonic nuclear warfare.
Known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, it was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900.The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft) in Miyako and which, in the Sendai area, travelled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. The earthquake moved Honshu 2.4 m (8 ft) east and shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25
cm.
Moret claimed further that the "attack" was carried out using High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) technology by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States Department of Energy, and British Petroleum on behalf of London banking interests.
Without her esteemed history and credibility within the scientific arena many would have dismissed her views as wild conspiracy theories yet her views are more and more raising questions within the scientific field regarding a global agenda to depopulate the earth through the use of radiation.
In 2008 she wrote an article in which she said,
“The international bankers located within the ancient Roman “City of London” have decided that: if you   
control the food, you control the nation, if you control the energy, you control a region, and if you control 
  
 
money, you control the whole world.
The City of London international bankers are the descendants of the Merchants of Venice, who are   
descended from those who controlled the Roman, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian empires. They invented 
  
 
the concept of a corporation to relieve themselves of any liability for their actions. 
  
 
Maurice Strong, more than anyone else in the world, has written the rules for the global takeover of land, 
  
 
resources and people by these international bankers. Strong began working for the Rockefellers when 
  
 
he was 18 and he continues to work for and with the Wall Street-City of London bankers today. And 
  
 
under the terms of globalization set up by Strong and others, private corporations have no responsibility 
  
 
or liability.
Jacob Rothschild and the Rothschild Family own 80% of the world's uranium. Individual property owners   
now typically own only the top 6 inches of soil on their land. Everything else, presumably down to the 
  
 
center of the earth, is owned by the City of London. Today, this global land grab is comprised of
countless local land grabs.
Governments such as the US government are creating Wildlands and National Heritage Sites. And this   
is proceeding under the justification of environmental protection. Meanwhile, people are being squeezed 
  
 
off their land. The environmental movement and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have tricked
us into relinquishing our private property rights guaranteed to us by the US Constitution. Agenda 21- the   
UN Agenda for the Twenty-First Century, also created by Maurice Strong- is proceeding at triple speed 
  
 
under Bush II.”
In this edition of the Vision Report Watch she unveils a deep insight into her research in two monumental interviews with the Media Conscious Network.
Reece Woodstock Chief Editor, Vision Report Watch

Violence again on streets of Belfast -15 police hurt as riots flare again

Armed police officers patrol in North Belfast (PA)


15 police hurt as riots flare again

  • Police use water cannon on loyalist rioters in north Belfast (AP)

    • Police use water cannon on loyalist rioters in north Belfast (AP)
    Press Association –  4th September 2012

    Fifteen police officers have been injured in a second night of serious disorder in Belfast.
    Three were taken to hospital during trouble that saw rioters throw 15 petrol bombs at police lines in the Carlisle Circus area in the north of the city.
    Officers used water cannon and fired six baton rounds at the crowds as troubled flared on Monday night.
    Rioters also hurled stones, bottles, fireworks and rocks and hijacked a van in Denmark Street before pushing it towards police lines.
    The extent of the injuries sustained by the police officers taken to hospital is not yet known.
    Terry Spence, chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said: "Their bravery and courage is in stark contrast to that of the cowardly thugs responsible for trying to murder them."
    The latest disorder came after 47 Police Service of Northern Ireland officers were injured on Sunday night during riots linked to a republican parade nearby and a loyalist protest.
     

    Terror figure killed in gun attack

    A man was killed in a gangland-style gun attack in north Dublin
    • A man was killed in a gangland-style gun attack in north Dublin
    Press Association –  Mon, Sep 3, 2012

    A leading terror figure has been killed and an associate injured in a gangland-style gun attack in north Dublin.
    The victim, named locally as Alan Ryan, has several previous convictions and is known by detectives for his links with the Real IRA (RIRA).
    The 32-year-old was notorious for racketeering - extorting cash from drug dealers and businessmen across the city and demanding protection money from firms.
    He was previously convicted of taking part in a RIRA weapons training camp in Meath in 2001 and served time for possession of a firearm in a separate incident.
    A Garda source said: "He was very dangerous. He won't be missed. Anyone could have done this. Even one of his own."
    The daylight shooting happened in the Grange Lodge estate in Clongriffin.
    Ryan was shot in the head near his home and was rushed to Beaumont hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The second man was shot in the leg.
    A burnt-out car was discovered a short time later on Hole in the Wall Road and both scenes have been sealed off pending a forensic technical examination.
    Gardai have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
    Ryan was due to go on trial - along with three other men - for threatening a city-centre publican and making him cease trading within 24 hours.

    Paris'a Madonna of Comedy...  Princess Nathalie Ruaux with some fans from Belgium at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

    Princess Nathalie Ruaux says she wants to to be voice of women world wide......
    "...... for me it is not about fame to be rich it is about fame to be able to get my message across to women world wide as well as
     Sir Jimmy Savile claiming (L) and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter (BBC/Reuters)
    Sir Jimmy Savile claiming (L) and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter (BBC/Reuters)

    Sir Jimmy Savile once claimed former 70s pop star and convicted paedophile Garry Glitter did nothing wrong and was only arrested because he was a celebrity.
    men that we must spread the word of love and caring amoungst our fellow humans and give free hugs when ever we can......"

    Paris's Madonna of Comedy -Princes Nathalie Ruaux in Edinburgh's Famous Royal Mile 
    after performing at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with some of her Belgium Fans 
    -Oliver Simons, Geron Vanderfeesten and Alexander Van Der Wiel

    Anybody wanting to know where Paris's Madonna of Comedy -Princes Nathalie Ruaux is performing next please email Fringe Show Have Talent at

    Julian Assange on Sweden, Persecution of WikiLeaks & Decay of Rule of Law

http://dissenter.firedoglake. com/2012/08/31/julian-assange- on-the-persecution-of- wikileaks-sweden-decay-of- rule-of-law/

By: Kevin Gosztola Friday August 31, 2012
Ecuador granted diplomatic asylum to WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange around two weeks ago. He remains in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been living for over two months. He delivered a speech expressing gratitude to Ecuador, Latin America and his supporters days after the decision was announced by Ecuador. Assange also highlighted the United States’ war on whistleblowers and dissidents and urged the country to dissolve its investigation into WikiLeaks.

Now, in an interview by Jorge Gestoso for Telesur, a pan-Latin American news station based in Venezuela, Assange addresses the political persecution he faces from the United States, why Ecuador was right to grant asylum, the Swedish case against him and the efforts to marginalize the WikiLeaks organization by refusing to consider it a journalistic organization or by accusing it of having “blood on its hands” for releasing documents.

“I am a person that it has been established is under a political persecution by the United States and its allies,” Assange declares. “That’s a fact. That fact was recognized, though we had to put a lot of work into giving the Ecuador government evidence about that fact.”
He goes on to express his belief that Ecuador “has been right to demonstrate its values in this case” and contends they went the “extra mile” in defending his rights because they correlate with Ecuador’s values. He knew Latin America su
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Antidepressants and School Shootings, Suicide, Addiction
[00:07:57]
- A shocking Compilation of Video clips showing negative side effects of Antidepressants. Suicide, homicide even to the point of school shootings. Best Case scenario you only experience Withdrawal and Addiction. My solution has not been medications/drugs but a company called Truehope: www.truehope.com-
- YouTube -
(Posted here: Wednesday, December 19, 2007)
An Evening with Lloyd Pie
Lecture on human origins and the Starchild Skull

[02:08:15]
- Lloyd is also the caretaker of the famous Starchild skull, and has written a new book about his eight years of struggle to get it scientifically tested to establish beyond dispute the precise genetic heritage of both of its parents. So far, extensive testing indicates that its mother was a normal human but its father was, in all probability, something other than entirely human. - 
- LECTURE BY LLOYD PIE -
(Posted here: Monday, July 14, 2008)


Click here to read the full article on The Kitty-Cat Who Roared
The loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush.
By Victor Davis Hanson http://www.usaweeklynews.com/Obama_TheKittyThatRoared.php
President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion — only later to meow like a little kitty.
Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock ticks — and Guantanamo isn’t close to being shut down. It once was easy for candidate Obama to deplore George W. Bush’s supposed gulag. Now it proves harder to decide between the bad choice of detaining non-uniformed terrorist combatants and the worse ones of letting them go, giving them civilian trials, or deporting them to unwilling hosts

Click here to read the full article on The Kitty-Cat Who Roared
The loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush.
By Victor Davis Hanson  http://www.usaweeklynews.com/Obama_TheKittyThatRoared.php

  Do all the above USA politicians all work for the same bosses?
It is fairfly public knowledge that George Bush and Bill Clintoin are connected toi the powerfu l and rich Freemason-Builderberger Group.. However, a female can not be a Freemason, but can be brought into the inner circle of the Builderberger Group.. We have all seen video footage on the
www.inlnews.com website at

http://www.inlnews.com/End_
Game_NewWorldOrder.html


showing Hillary Clinton attending a Builderberger meeting..the question remains...how does Barrack Obama fit into all this......would the Freemason and Buiderberger Group who have unlimited power, money and influence.. have allowed Barrack Obama to win the USA Presidential Election so easily if Barrack Obama isn't  either knowingly and/or unwittnngly, doing what they want him to do.. and/or will not let him do what he wants to do....as their obviously preferred presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton lost the right to run for president of the USA to Barrack Obama, the next best thing was to insure Hillary Clinton was in the most powerful public service position in the USA Government ,as Sectretary of State...In fact it may now suit them to have Hillary Clinton not to be President  of the USA, as what ever happens will be blamed on Barack Obama, when in fact it may well be that his right hand woman, Hillary Clinton, may in fact be making the effective decisions and/or influencing Barrack Obama's thoughts on a day to day basis  so that in the end Barrack Obama does exactky what Hillary Clinton's supervisors want, as far as the overall direction onfthe USA in domestic and foreign affairs.
Click here to view more on this subject http://www.usaweeklynews.com/Obama_TheKittyThatRoared.php


Click here to view the The Rise Decline and Fall of America The Film..........
http://www.usaweeklynews.com/Obama_TheKittyThatRoared.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-dang_b_147188.html

Obama's Team Includes Dangerous Biotech "Yes Men"

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith

The world's leading consumer advocate promoting healthier non-GMO choices.
Posted: November 30, 2008





Biotech "Yes Men" on Obama's team threaten to expand the use of dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods in our diets. Instead of giving us change and hope, they may prolong the hypnotic "group think" that has been institutionalized over three previous administrations—where critical analysis was abandoned in favor of irrational devotion to this risky new technology.
Clinton's agriculture secretary Dan Glickman saw it first hand:
"It was almost immoral to say that [biotechnology] wasn't good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. . . . If you're against it, you're Luddites, you're stupid. That, frankly, was the side our government was on. . . . You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view"
When Glickman dared to question the lax regulations on GM food, he said he "got slapped around a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the people even in the administration."
By shutting open-minds and slapping dissent, deceptive myths about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) persist.
  • The industry boasts that GMOs reduce herbicide use; USDA data show that the opposite is true.
  • We hear that GMOs increase yield and farmer profit; but USDA and independent studies show an average reduction in yield and no improved bottom line for farmers.
  • George H. W. Bush fast-tracked GMOs to increase US exports; now the government spends an additional $3-$5 billion per year to prop up prices of the GM crops no one wants.
  • Advocates continue to repeat that GMOs are needed to feed the world; now the prestigiousInternational Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development has joined a long list of experts who flatly reject GMOs as the answer to hunger.
Food Safety Lies
Of all the myths about GMOs, the most dangerous is that they are safe. This formed the hollow basis of the FDA's 1992 GMO policy, which stated:
"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."
The sentence is complete fiction. At the time it was written, there was overwhelming consensus among the FDA's own scientists that GM foods were substantially different, and could create unpredictable, unsafe, and hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, diseases, and nutritional problems. They had urged the political appointees in charge to require long-term safety studies, including human studies, to protect the public.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/us/politics/obama-and-romney-hold-first-debate.html?hp&_r=0



Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy

Mitt Romney and President Obama shaking hands before challenging each other on a number of domestic policy issues in their first debate. More Photos »
By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: October 3, 2012 
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http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/r/mitt_romney/background/index.html
Mitt Romney
Dave Weaver for The New York Time
Oct. 23, 2012
Mitt Romney, a former private equity investor and governor of Massachusetts, secured the Republican presidential nomination on May 29, 2012, by winning a final batch of necessary delegates in the Texas primary. He was nominated on Aug. 28 as the Republican candidate for president at the party’s national convention in Tampa, Fla.

Having lost the Republican nomination to Senator John McCain in 2008, Mr. Romney had been campaigning steadily since then, raising money and building a formidable political operation. As the nominee, Mr. Romney is presenting himself as a ready-to-lead executive, seizing on the weak state of the economy as a central criticism of President Barack Obama.
With Mr. Romney’s selection of Paul D. Ryan as his running mate, his campaign shifted. The size and role of the federal government moved to the center of the debate. It was a choice intended to galvanize the Republican base and represented a clear tactical shift.
For Mr. Romney, the decision was one of the boldest moves of his presidential candidacy. It promised to energize conservatives, who had been eagerly lobbying for Mr. Ryan and who see his budget as the key to unlocking the economy’s potential for growth.
Throughout the campaign, Mr. Romney has been struggling to win the heart of an increasingly conservative party. Conservatives have never been drawn to Mr. Romney, who in Massachusetts supported abortion rights, and whose capstone achievement as governor there was the creation of a health care plan that to many Republicans looks distressingly similar to the federal law signed in 2010 by Mr. Obama.
In his convention speech in late August, Mr. Romney attempted to redefine the race around his business background, which the Democrats had spent the summer attacking. He delivered a pointed critique of Mr. Obama’s domestic and foreign policy, saying that he had “thrown Israel under the bus.”
Mr. Romney also used the speech to make a case for himself. He recalled his childhood in Michigan, talked about his Mormon faith and aimed a steady stream of messages at women.
But Mr. Romney’s central message was one that focused on the weak economic recovery and harked back to the 1980 campaign of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. “This president,’' Mr. Romney said, “cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office.”
Presidential Debates
During the month of October, Mr. Romney participated in three televised presidential debates against Mr. Obama. In the first one, on Oct. 3, the immediate reaction to the debate was a torrent of criticism directed at Mr. Obama, with Republicans, and as well as many Democrats, accusing him of delivering a flat, uninspired and defensive performance. The second debate, on Oct. 16, was strikingly different, as Mr. Obama pressed an attack that allowed him to often dictate the terms of the debate. But an unbowed Mr. Romney was there to meet him every time, and seemed to relish the opportunity to challenge a sitting president.
In the final round, on Oct. 22, focusing on foreign policy, Mr. Obama picked up where he left off in the second debate, going on the offense from the start, lacerating Mr. Romney for articulating a set of “wrong and reckless” policies that he called incoherent. While less aggressive, Mr. Romney pressed back, accusing the president of failing to assert American interests and values in the world to deal with a “rising tide of chaos.”  For more on the presidential debates, click here.
Campaign Thrown Off Balance
In September, a few weeks before the debates, the Romney campaign was thrown off balance, first by rioting in the Middle East incited by an anti-Islamic video, and then by the release of a video clip of Mr. Romney speaking at a high-end fundraiser.
The deadly attack on an American diplomatic post in Libya on Sept. 11 propelled foreign policy to the forefront of an otherwise inward-looking presidential campaign and presented an unexpected test not only to Mr. Obama, but also to Mr. Romney, whose response quickly came under fire
While President Obama dealt with the killings of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and deflected questions about his handling of the Arab world, Mr. Romney wasted little time going on the attack, accusing the president of apologizing for American values and appeasing Islamic extremists.
“They clearly sent mixed messages to the world,” Mr. Romney told reporters during a campaign swing through Florida.
But Mr. Romney came under withering criticism for distorting the chain of events overseas and appearing to seek political advantage from an attack that claimed American lives. A statement he personally approved characterized an appeal for religious tolerance issued by the American Embassy in Cairo as sympathy for the attackers even though the violence did not occur until hours after the embassy statement. Mr. Romney on Sept. 12 said the embassy statement, which was disavowed by the administration, was “akin to apology, and I think was a severe miscalculation.”
The harsh exchanges had their origins the night before as Mr. Romney’s team was following the increasingly volatile developments in the Middle East. The embassy statement, issued hours before protests in Cairo and the attack in Libya began, had tried to mollify Muslims upset at an American-made anti-Islam video. “We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others,” the statement said.
For Mr. Romney, whose 2010 book, “No Apology,” assailed Mr. Obama for what he saw as trying to placate America’s enemies, the embassy statement rankled. When aides showed it to him, they said he reacted strongly to the notion of “hurt” religious feelings. In his mind, they said, the Obama administration was aligning itself with those who would do harm to the United States. Already on the defensive for not mentioning Afghanistan in his convention speech and losing some ground in recent polls, Mr. Romney saw an opportunity to draw a stark contrast.
On Sept. 13, Mr. Romney sought to move beyond his criticism of President Obama’s response to the turmoil in Libya and Egypt and instead broadly paint the president as weak on foreign policy. At a rally in Northern Virginia, he criticized Mr. Obama for imposing cuts on the military budget, saying, “As we watch the world today, sometimes it seems that we’re at the mercy of events, instead of shaping events, and a strong America is essential to shape events. And a strong America, by the way, depends on a strong military.” 
Leaked Video Shows Blunt Talk
Just a few days later, Mr. Romney faced an escalating torrent of criticism over a video that surfaced of him at a fundraiser. Speaking to a group of wealthy donors, Mr. Romney described almost half of Americans as “people who pay no income tax” and are “dependent upon government.” Those voters, he said, would probably support  President Obama because they believe they are “victims” who are “entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
In a brief and hastily called news conference the night of Sept. 17, Mr. Romney acknowledged having made the blunt political and cultural assessment, saying it was “not elegantly stated,” but he stood by the substance of the remarks, insisting that he had made similar observations in public without generating controversy.
Democrats quickly condemned the remarks as insensitive, and Mr. Obama’s campaign accused Mr. Romney of having “disdainfully written off half the nation.”
The video surfaced as Mr. Romney sought to restart his campaign with new ads and new messaging, in response to calls in his campaign and from outside for him to be more specific about how his policies would fix the nation’s economy and help the middle class.
Once again, the video raised the possibility that Mr. Romney’s campaign would be sidetracked, with attention focused on his proposed tax cuts for the wealthy, the release of his personal tax returns and his ability to connect with middle-class voters. With its unvarnished language, the video seemed to undermine what aides have argued is an enduring attribute that would appeal to independent voters: a sense that Mr. Romney is, at base, an empathetic and caring man.
In the video, Mr. Romney also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the wealthy donors, telling them that resolving the conflict between the warring neighbors is unlikely to happen. “We sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it,” Mr. Romney said.
Snippets of the video were posted online Sept. 17 by Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, which said it had obtained the recording and had confirmed its authenticity. The author of the Mother Jones article, David Corn, said on MSNBC that the video was shot on May 17 at the Boca Raton, Fla., home of Marc Leder, a financier, who held a $50,000-a-person fund-raiser for Mr. Romney that night.
Addressing the video in the news conference, Mr. Romney said his comments about America aimed to answer “a question about direction for the country: Do you believe in a government-centered society that provides more and more benefits? Or do you believe instead in a free-enterprise society where people are able to pursue their dreams?”
Background
Willard Mitt Romney’s father was George W. Romney, an automobile executive and moderate Republican who was governor of Michigan before losing a presidential bid in 1968.
Mr. Romney and his family are devout Mormons — Mr. Romney spent two years working as a missionary in France. His family is a cornerstone of his political image, and Ann, his wife of 39 years, and five adult sons were fixtures at his campaign stops in 2008. His wife received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1998.
After earning both law and business degrees at Harvard, Mr. Romney went into corporate consulting. At the leveraged buyout firm Bain Capital, he developed a reputation as someone who could turn failing companies into profitable enterprises – a skill that helped him amass his fortune, but has also brought questions about job cuts and investments that fared poorly.
He reinforced his image of competence by stepping in to help manage the 2000 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, which had been plagued by budget shortfalls and accusations of scandal.
Mr. Romney’s political fortunes have been mixed, but no one can accuse him of choosing easy races. He ran against Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in 1994 (a race he lost) and for governor of the state in 2002 (a race he won). Indeed, those early campaigns would compromise his efforts to win the Republican primary in 2008. After taking moderate stances on issues including gay rights and abortion, (he said he experienced a “conversion” on the issue in 2004 and now opposes abortion rights), some conservatives are skeptical of his convictions, as well as of his Mormon faith.
Twin Crises Show How Romney Reacts to Challenges
One element that has been conspicuously missing from the Romney campaign is a crisis narrative — the kind of biographical story of overcoming hardship that other politicians have used to define themselves and inspire other Americans.
It is not that a crisis narrative does not exist. In 1968, Mr. Romney, then a Mormon missionary in France, was at the wheel of a tiny Citroën, cruising along a country road, when a Mercedes rounded a curve and crashed into his car, head on. One of his passengers — the wife of the French mission president — was killed. Mr. Romney, by all accounts not at fault, was knocked unconscious and mistakenly pronounced dead at the scene.
Thirty years later, in 1998, at the height of Mr. Romney’s high-flying career as a private equity executive, his wife, Ann, was not well. She was exhausted, and having difficulty walking; her right foot was dragging. When a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital arrived at a diagnosis — multiple sclerosis — the couple “just held each other in their arms,” their son Josh said, “and just cried.”
These are dark moments — bookends of sorts — in what otherwise has seemed a charmed existence. Both offer clues into Mr. Romney’s character, and the way he reacts to challenges. He is both forward-looking and inward-looking, practical and deeply private, with a consultant’s instinct for identifying solutions even in the most personally trying times.
After the shock of Ann Romney’s diagnosis, he immersed himself in research about multiple sclerosis. He read scientific papers and called medical experts. And he began focusing on practical ways he might make his wife’s life easier. He contemplated installing an elevator in their home and moved the master bedroom downstairs.
After the car crash in France, Mr. Romney returned to his mission duties with a broken arm and renewed zeal; along with another 21-year-old, he was left in charge of the mission. In an early hint of his executive abilities, he concentrated on motivating his peers to win more converts.
Dogged by Record in Massachusetts
During his single term in the governor’s mansion, Mr. Romney was a vocal opponent of the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s ruling allowing gay marriage, and he also presided over the passage of the state’s mandatory health care coverage law.
More even than his faith and his social-conservative credentials, questions about the health insurance plan he signed into law in Massachusetts have left him open to criticism from his party. And the White House has joined in, showering unhelpful praise on the plan, which, like the federal law, includes a mandate for residents to carry insurance.
In a speech in Ann Arbor, Mich., and in an article in USA Today on May 12, 2011, Mr. Romney proposed a state-by-state solution to health care combined with federal action that would cap medical malpractice awards, allow insurance to be sold across state lines and use the tax code to subsidize the purchase of health insurance. He defended his decision to insist on a mandate that all citizens buy insurance or face penalties as ensuring that they take personal responsibility for the costs of their own care rather than passing it on to taxpayers by showing up at emergency rooms that have to treat them by law.
Mr. Romney said that as president, he would advocate a different approach for the nation. He laid out an approach that resembled past Republican plans, including those proposed by former President George W. Bush in his second term. It includes providing tax breaks to individuals who buy insurance on their own, resembling those that benefit people who buy it through their employers; limiting the amounts of some damages in malpractice suits; and financingMedicaid through block grants to the states.
Romney’s Economic Plan
In September 2011, Mr. Romney offered a detailed economic proposal that included repealing President Obama’s health care law, cutting the corporate tax rate, placing sanctions on China as a currency manipulator and immediately reducing taxes on savings and investment by the middle class — and promised to push many of these policies on his first day in the Oval Office. In the plan, whose stated goal is to “restore America to the path of robust economic growth necessary to create jobs,” he promised to immediately cut the corporate income tax rate, currently topping out at 35 percent, to 25 percent. Although he did not outline any specific proposals for closing loopholes or otherwise simplifying the tax code, he also promised to make permanent the tax cuts on individuals enacted under President George W. Bush and to eliminate taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains for anyone making less than $200,000 a year. In an effort to stimulate American exports, Mr. Romney said he would push free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, as well as officially place sanctions on China for keeping its currency artificially low, a move that makes Chinese imports cheap to American consumers and has led to trade imbalances.
Mr. Romney also vowed to make it easier for American companies to drill for oil in the United States and to cut federal discretionary spending on anything other than security measures by 5 percent — or $20 billion. He said he would consolidate government training programs and order that any new regulations add no new costs to the economy. The plan was criticized by Democrats, who said it would require deep cuts in non-defense discretionary spending while lowering taxes sharply for the rich.
In the fall, a wide range of economists, including some conservatives, say that it would be impossible to raise enough money from closing loopholes to cover the lost revenue from rate cuts without raising taxes on the middle class. Democrats, including President Obama, seized on one study that put that cost at $2,000 per middle class household. Mr. Romney has said that it is “just not true” that he would raise taxes on middle-income earners, with his campaign hitting the Obama campaign for playing “class warfare.” But it is simply not clear how the Romney campaign would fill the holes.
A Drawn-Out Slog for Delegates
Where Mr. Romney had hoped to drive his opponents out and quickly claim the mantle of the “inevitable” nominee, he instead found himself in a drawn-out slog for delegates. Mr. Romney was initially described as the winner of the Iowa caucuses, but a recount handed the win to Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who was increasingly gaining conservative support. Mr. Romney won handily in New Hampshire, then was beaten in South Carolina by Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House. After a bitter and highly negative contest in Florida, in which the Republican establishment almost desperately rallied around him, Mr. Romney emerged the winner and appeared to regain his frontrunner status. But two weeks later, Mr. Santorum swept the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and won a nonbinding primary in Missouri.
In Michigan, Mr. Romney narrowly carried his native state, while fending off a vigorous challenge from Mr. Santorum. He also won the Arizona primary. On Super Tuesday, Mr. Romney pulled off a narrow victory in Ohiobut lost several other states to Mr. Santorum, a split verdict that overshadowed Mr. Romney’s claim of collecting the most delegates and all but ensured another round of intense infighting on the road to the nomination. When Mr. Romney came in third in Alabama and Mississippi, in the heart of the party’s Southern base, in mid-March, it appeared that conservative opposition to his candidacy was coalescing around Mr. Santorum. But a sweep by Mr. Romney of primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia on one night in early April gave a clear sense that he was tightening his grip on the nomination. When Mr. Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10, Mr. Romney’s nomination was essentially assured. He formally secured the delegates needed in the Texas primary in late May.
After that, Mr. Romney sought to step up his attack on Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy, while softening his tone on some issues like immigration. The Supreme Court’s decision in June to uphold Mr. Obama’s health care law gave the president a victory, but also gave Mr. Romney a chance to fire up the Republican base by vowing to repeal it.
Summer Challenges for the Campaign
Heading into the summer, Mr. Romney’s highly disciplined campaign was thrown uncharacteristically off-balance by attacks against his record at the private equity firm he co-founded, Bain Capital. In June 2012, President Obama gleefully went after Mr. Romney and Bain Capital, declaring that “we do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office.” The president was citing an article inThe Washington Post reporting that Bain had invested in companies that specialized in the practice of relocating American jobs to low-wage nations like China and India.
Mr. Romney’s campaign questioned that article, saying that when those investments occurred, Mr. Romney had left Bain in 1999 to run the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. But that defense led to a new round of charges, when news reports focused on dozens of federal filings between 1999 and 2001 in which Mr. Romney had described himself as the owner or chief executive of the firm.
In July 2012, Mr. Romney made a highly anticipated overseas trip, the centerpiece of which was a visit to Israel. He offered a strong defense of Israel’s right to protect itself against the threat of a nuclear Iran. While he was there, Mr. Romney found himself on the defensivewith Palestinian leaders after making comments suggesting that cultural differences were the reasons that Israelis were so much more economically successful than the Palestinians. He did not mention the impact that deep trade restrictions imposed by the Israeli government have had on the Palestinian economy. He also vastly understated the income disparities between the two groups. The summer also saw Mr. Romney under pressure to release more of his tax returns. Mr. Romney released his full return for the 2010 tax year and a short summary of taxes he paid in 2011. He claims that every year, he has paid at least 13 percent, referring to his effective federal income tax rate. Mr. Romney’s fortune is estimated at $250 million.
Ryan a Bold But Risky Choice for V.P.
On Aug. 11, Mr. Romney introduced Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate at a campaign rally, bringing to his side one of the party’s young conservative leaders in a move that altered the contours of the campaign and sharpened the choice facing the voters in November. The selection of Mr. Ryan, the chief architect of the Republican Party’s plan for tax and spending cuts and an advocate of reshaping the Medicare program of health insurance for retirees, was an effort to reset the race with President Obama after a withering assault on Mr. Romney by Democrats. The decision instantly made the campaign seem bigger and more consequential, with the size and role of the federal government squarely at the center of the debate. It was a choice intended to galvanize the Republican base and represented a clear tactical shift by Mr. Romney, who until that point had been singularly focused on weak job growth since Mr. Obama took office.
For Mr. Romney, the decision was one of the boldest moves of his presidential candidacy, which had been guided by a do-no-harm strategy. It promised to energize conservatives, who had been eagerly lobbying for Mr. Ryan and who see his budget as the key to unlocking the economy’s potential for growth.
Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic Party seized on the choice and sought to define the Republican ticket in stark terms, as two men who would strip health coverage for retirees and favor the wealthy.
A Party Convention That Did Not Follow the Script
On Aug. 28, Mr. Romney was nominated as the Republican candidate for president at the party’s national convention in Tampa, Fla.
The 4,400 delegates nominated Mr. Romney just six hours after he arrived in Tampa and just as Hurricane Isaac was getting ready to strike the Gulf Coast.
The Republican National Convention did not play out according to the script written by Mr. Romney’s advisers. The storm scrambled the convention schedule, while grass-root elements of the party loudly expressed their disapproval on the convention floor, threatening the images of a party united.
Mr. Romney’s supporters passed new rules governing future primaries over the loud boos of Ron Paul supporters and other conservative activists who had objected to what they said was a power grab by the party’s establishment leaders.
The vote to approve the rules came after aides to Mr. Romney said they had reached a compromise with conservative activists who had rebelled against efforts by the Republican establishment to make it harder for candidates outside the mainstream to collect national delegates at the next convention.
More on the Presidential Debates
During the month of October, Mr. Romney participated in three televised presidential debates against Mr. Obama.
After the first debate, on Oct. 3, the immediate reaction was a torrent of criticism directed at Mr. Obama, with Republicans, and as well as many Democrats, accusing him of delivering a flat, uninspired and defensive performance.
But the second debate, on Oct. 16, was strikingly different. The two men engaged in an intensive clash, with tensions between them spilling out in interruptions, personal rebukes and accusations of lying as they parried over the last four years under Mr. Obama and what the next four would look like under a President Romney. Mr. Obama’s broadsides started with a critique of Mr. Romney for his opposition to his administration’s automobile bailout in his first answer and ended more than 90 minutes later with an attack on Mr. Romney’s secretly taped comments about the “47 percent” of Americans who he said did not take responsibility for their own lives. But an unbowed Mr. Romney was there to meet him every time, and seemed to relish the opportunity to challenge a sitting president.
In the final round, on Oct. 22, which focused on foreign policy, Mr. Obama picked up where he left off in the second debate, going on the offense from the start, lacerating Mr. Romney for articulating a set of “wrong and reckless” policies that he called incoherent. Issues ranged from turmoil in the Middle East to a resurgent Russia to an emerging China. While less aggressive, Mr. Romney pressed back, accusing the president of failing to assert American interests and values in the world to deal with a “rising tide of chaos.” Topics ranged from turmoil in the Middle East to a resurgent Russia to an emerging China. But for all its fireworks, the third debate broke little new ground and underscored that the differences between the two men on foreign policy rest more on tone, style and their sense of leadership than on particular policies. 
For more on the presidential debates, click here.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/presidential_debates/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
Oct. 22: Third presidential debate
Main article: President Obama and Mitt Romney wrapped up a series of defining debates with a bristling exchange over America’s place in the world as each sought to portray the other as an unreliable commander in chief in a dangerous era.
Picking up where he left off in the previous debate, Mr. Obama went on offense from the start, lacerating his challenger for articulating a set of “wrong and reckless” policies that he called incoherent. While less aggressive, Mr. Romney pressed back, accusing the president of failing to assert American interests and values in the world to deal with a “rising tide of chaos.”
For all its fireworks, the debate broke little new ground and underscored that the differences between the two men on foreign policy rest more on tone, style and their sense of leadership than on particular policies. Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney seemed to align on matters like withdrawal from Afghanistan, the perils of intervening in Syria and the use of drones to battle terrorists. To read the full article, click here.
News Analysis: Mr. Romney tried to reassure a war-weary public that he would avoid new conflicts, but he had a hard time explaining how he would act differently from Mr. Obama. To read the full article, click here. Also, the debate on foreign policy presented a skewed vision of the world, even the world defined by American national interests. For the article, click here.
TV Watch: The final debate featured an odd role reversal: Mitt Romney seemed to be on the defensive, and President Obama almost sounded like a Republican hard-liner. For the full article, click here.
Other coverage:
Full video: Interactive replay of the final debate, using fact-checks and graphics to take a closer look at attacks and assertions. Clickhere.
For all fact checks, click here.
For a complete transcript, click here. 
Oct. 16: Second presidential debate
Main article: President Obama and Mitt Romney engaged in one of the most intensive clashes in a televised presidential debate, with tensions between them spilling out in interruptions, personal rebukes and accusations of lying as they parried over the last four years under Mr. Obama and what the next four would look like under a President Romney.
Competing for a shrinking sliver of undecided voters, many of them women, their engagements at times bordered on physical as they circled each other or bounded out of their seats while the other was speaking, at times more intent to argue than to address the questions over jobs, taxes, energy, immigration and a range of other issues.
Mr. Obama, criticized by his own party for a lackluster debate performance two weeks ago, this time pressed an attack that allowed him to often dictate the terms of the debate. But an unbowed Mr. Romney was there to meet him every time, and seemed to relish the opportunity to challenge a sitting president. To read the full article, click here.
News analysis: President Obama, who concluded that he was “too polite” in his first debate with Mitt Romney, made sure no one would say that after their second. He interrupted, he scolded, he filibustered, he shook his head. For the full article, click here.
TV watch: They didn’t seem to feel people’s pain; they mostly tried to wound each other. At their town hall debate on Tuesday night at Hofstra University, President Obama and Mitt Romney circled around each other like tomcats in an alley, at one point doing a little dance of dominance as they clashed over energy policy. For the full article, click here.
Other coverage
For an interactive replay of the second debate, using fact-checks and graphics to take a closer look at attacks and assertions by President Obama and Mitt Romney, click here.
For fact checks of key points, click here.
For a full transcript, click here.
Oct. 11: Vice presidential debate
Main article: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan fiercely quarreled at the one vice-presidential debate, with Mr. Biden using the cutting attack lines against the Republican ticket that President Obama did not and Mr. Ryan delivering a spirited case for conservative policies that Mitt Romney had soft-pedaled.
The 90-minute debate, which unfolded in rapid tempo, offered a spirited airing of the sharp contrasts over the administration’s handling of the terrorist attack in Libya, the pace of the economic recovery at home and the role of government in addressing the nation’s fiscal burdens. For the full article, click here.
News analysis: It was the Young Gun against the Old Hand, the reformer ready to turn the page on an aging social compact that dates to the New Deal jousting with the veteran — alive for much of that compact’s construction — defending the tried and true. For the full article, click here.
TV watch: For Mr. Biden especially, the night was his chance to relive past debates and unleash his inner barroom brawler. For the complete article, click here.
Other coverage
For an interactive replay of the presidential debate, using fact checks and graphics to take a closer look at attacks and assertions by Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan, click here.
For a video presentation of the debate highlights, click here.
For fact checks, click here.
For a complete video of the debate, click here. For a complete transcript, click here.
Oct. 3: First presidential debate
Main article: In the first of three presidential debates, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of failing to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, using the forum to invigorate his candidacy by presenting himself as an equal who can solve problems Mr. Obama has been unable to. The president implored Americans to be patient and argued that his policies needed more time to work, warning that changing course would wipe away the economic progress the country is steadily making. The two quarreled aggressively over tax policy, the budget deficit and the role of government, with each man accusing the other of being evasive and misleading voters. For the full article, click here.
Other coverage
News analysis: Somewhere in the wonky blizzard of facts, statistics and studies thrown out on stage was a fundamental philosophical choice about the future of America, quite possibly the starkest in nearly three decades.
An interactive replay of the presidential debate, using fact checks and graphics to take a closer look at President Obama and Mitt Romney’s assertions and attacks.
More fact checks on the debate, looking at assertions on health care, the deficit, green jobs, oil subsidies and more.
The TV watch: It was death by a thousand smiles.
Instant reaction polls show a strong performance by Mr. Romney.
Updates and analysis from during and after the debate.
For a full transcript, click here. For a full video, click here.
Body language — a visual analysis of the candidates’ styles.









Barack Obama

Barack Obama Net Worth

Net Worth: Stats $11.8 Million As of 2012
Source of Wealth: Books, Politics (Annual Salary: $400,000)

Barack Hussein Obama II Age: 51 Years Old
Barack Hussein Obama II Date of Birth: August 4, 1961
Barack Hussein Obama II Birth Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Barack Hussein Obama II Nationality: country_1  United States
Barack Hussein Obama II Ethnicity: African, Irish, English
Barack Hussein Obama II Height: 6' 1" (1.85 m)
Barack Hussein Obama II Weight: 176 lbs (80 kg)
Barack Hussein Obama II Full Name: Barack Hussein Obama II
Barack Hussein Obama II Marital Status: Married (Michelle Obama)
Barack Hussein Obama II Children: 2 (Malia, Sasha)
Barack Hussein Obama II Education: J.D./Harvard Law School,B.A./Columbia University
Barack Hussein Obama II Occupation: Politician (Current U.S. President ), Author

Barack Obama

The 44th president of the United States, author and the most popular person in the world,  Barack Hussein Obama II, has a net worth between $2,801,012 and $11,830,000, according to analysis of his 2012 financial disclosure forms. Excluding the $1.4 million in Nobel Prize money he donated to charity and his primary home.
His historic run for the presidency helped him sell millions of copies of his two books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope, during the campaign. He sold another 100,000 copies the week following his election. In 2009, the president earned an advance for an abridged version of Dreams for young adults; the deal made him the first sitting president in recent memory to receive a book advance while in office. The real money will be made years from now: Obama could certainly earn tens of millions of dollars a year giving speeches full time.
President Barack Obama’s base salary is $400,000 a year. He also has access to a $150,000 expense account as well as a $100,000 tax free travel account and $20,000 entertainment budget.
Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate, and is the first African American President of the United States. Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

Israel

Obama meeting with Israeli PresidentShimon Peres, 2009
Photograph 
President George W. Bush meets with President-elect Obama in the Oval Office on November 10, 2008

A young boy (preteen), a younger girl (toddler), a woman (about age thirty) and a man (in his mid-fifties) sit on a lawn wearing contemporary c.-1970 attire. The adults wear sunglasses and the boy wears sandals. 
Obama with his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, mother Ann Dunham and grandfatherStanley Dunham, in Honolulu, Hawaii
Obama talks with pub-goers as the First Lady draws a pint of stout at the Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, in 2011

Obama about to take a shot while three other players look at him. One of those players is holding is arms up in an attempt to block Obama.
Obama taking a shot during a game on the White House basketball court, 2009

Obama posing in the Green Room of the White House with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009

Gray-haired man and Obama stand, wearing casual polo shirts. Obama wears sunglasses and holds something slung over his right shoulder.

Obama and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) visit a Russian facility for dismantling mobile missiles (August 2005).[81]
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Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House, March 23, 2010
President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death
President Obama's address (Full Text) Wikisource has information on "Remarks by the President on Osama bin Laden"

President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death
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County results of the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Counties in blue were won by Obama.
Obama conducting the first completely virtual interview from the White House in 2012[254]

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Obama stands on stage with his wife and daughters just before announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007

A portrait shot of Barack Obama, looking straight ahead. He has short black hair, and is wearing a dark navy blazer with a blue striped tie over a light blue collared shirt. In the background are two flags hanging from separate flagpoles: the American flag, and the flag of the Executive Office of the President.
44th President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2009
Vice President Joe Biden
Preceded by George W. Bush

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Obama speaking on "A New Beginning" at Cairo University on June 4, 2009

Maximum Out-of-Pocket Premium as Percentage of Family Income and federal poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014. (Source: CRS)
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Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House, March 23, 2010

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Obama presents his first weekly addressas President of the United States on January 24, 2009, discussing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009


Obama meets with the Cabinet, November 23, 2009.


Obama speaking at Joint session of Congress with Vice President Joe Biden andHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi on February 24, 2009

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Barack Obama takes the oath of officeadministered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. at the Capitol, January 20, 2009

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British Prime Minister David Cameron and Obama, during the 2010 G-20 Toronto summit


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Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón, 2009

"Barack" and "Obama" redirect here. For other uses, see Barak (disambiguation) and Obama (disambiguation).
For President Obama's father, the Kenyan economist, see Barack Obama, Sr.
Barack Hussein Obama II (Listeni/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.
Several events earned Obama national attention during his campaign to represent the State of Illinois in the United States Senate in 2004, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won the Senate election in November 2004, serving until his resignation following his 2008 presidential election victory. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close race in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republicannominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 in response to the 2007–2009 recession in the United States. Other major domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In foreign policy, Obama ended US military involvement in the Iraq War, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New STARTarms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support legalizing same-sex marriage.

Early life and career

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6] His mother, Ann Dunham, was born inWichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry.[7] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[8][9] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[10][11] and separated when Obama's mother moved with her newborn son to Seattle, Washington, in late August 1961, to attend the University of Washington for one year. In the meantime, Obama, Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. His parents divorced in March 1964.[12] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[13] He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[14]
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[15] After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[16] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School from one and half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School home schooling by his mother.[17]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[18] Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student inanthropology at the University of Hawaii.[19] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to begin anthropology field work.[20] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a Ph.D. in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer anduterine cancer.[21]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[9] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[22] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[23] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".[24] Obama was also member of the "choom gang", a self named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[25] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama expressed regret for his high-school drug use.[26]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.[27] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[27] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[28] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[29] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[30][31]

Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School

Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[31][32] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[33] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[34] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[35][36] He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his sister Auma.[35][37] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[38]
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[39] and president of the journal in his second year.[33][40] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[41] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[42] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[39] Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[33][40] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[43] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[43]

University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney

In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[43][44] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.[45]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.[46]

In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2007.[47][48]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.[31] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[31]

Legislative career: 1997–2008

State Senator: 1997–2004

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.[49] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[50] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[51] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[52]

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.[53] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[54]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.[55]He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[51][56] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[57] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[58]

U.S. Senate campaign
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[59]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.[60] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[61] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,[62] and spoke out against the war.[63] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too late" to stop the war.[64]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.[65] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[66] In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the2004 Democratic National Convention,[67] seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[68]

Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[69] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[70] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote.[71]

U.S. Senator: 2005–2008


Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[72] becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[73] CQ Weeklycharacterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.[74]

Legislation

See also: List of bills sponsored by Barack Obama in the United States Senate
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[75] He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons;[76] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[77] On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[78]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee.[79] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[80]

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.[82] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[83] Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[84] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[85] neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[86] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[87] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Actsupporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[88] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[89]

Committees

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[90] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions andHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[91] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.[92] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government.[93]

Presidential campaigns

2008 presidential campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building inSpringfield, Illinois.[94][95] The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincolndelivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858.[94][96] Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care,[97] in a campaign that projected themes of "hope" and "change".[98]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[99] On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[100]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[101] Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[102] At theDemocratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clintongave convention speeches in his support.[103] Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held, but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[104][105]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[106] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[107]

John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008.[108] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[109] Obama won 52.9% of thepopular vote to McCain's 45.7%.[110] He became the first African American to be elected president.[111] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.[112]

2012 presidential campaign

Main articles: United States presidential election, 2012 and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission.[113][114][115] As the incumbent president he ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[116] and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[117]
At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, former President Bill Clinton formally nominated Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president.[118]

Presidency

First days
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[120] He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[121] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds.[122][123][124] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records.[125] He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President Reagan's Mexico City Policy prohibiting federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.[126]
Domestic policy
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[127] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[128] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.[129]
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[130] becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.[131] Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history.[132]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.[133][134]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceivedgender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[135][136]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[137][138]
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return ofhuman spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International Space Station.[139]
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign[140][141] to end the Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.[142]
President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80% reliant on "clean" electricity.[143][144]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[145] but by the time of his run for the U.S. senate in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages.[146] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[147][148]

Economic policy

On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession.[149] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[150] which is being distributed over the course of several years.
In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.[151] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[152] in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[153] and areorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60% equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12% stake.[154] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[155] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[156][157][158]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[159] However, Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion or 10.6% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9% of GDP.[160][161] For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90% of GDP.[162] The most recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26, 2012.[163] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings.[164] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on its obligations.[165]
As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0% and averaging 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7% in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year.[168] Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8%, which was less than the average of 1.9% experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries.[169] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6%, followed by a 5.0% increase in the fourth quarter.[170] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7% in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[170] In July 2010, the Federal Reserveexpressed that although economic activity continued to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain."[171] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9% in 2010.[172]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[173][174] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[174][175][176][177] while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[173] Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73% of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[178]
Employment statistics (changes in unemployment rate and net jobs per month) during Obama's tenure as U.S. President[166][167]

Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes.[179] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[180]

Health care reform

Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[181] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[182][183]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[181] After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals.[184] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[185]
Photograph
Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House, March 23, 2010
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[186][187] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[188] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[189] Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[190]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to take effect over four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of the federal poverty level(FPL) starting in 2014,[191] subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400% of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5% of income,[192][193] providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[192][194]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[195] there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[196] In March, 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[197]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the Commerce Clause does not allow the government to require people to buy health insurance, but the mandate was constitutional under the US Congress's taxing authority.[198]

Maximum Out-of-Pocket Premium as Percentage of Family Income and federal poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014. (Source: CRS)

Gulf of Mexico oil spill

On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. The well's operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[199] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[200]

2010 midterm election

Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[201] "humbling" and a "shellacking".[202] He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.[203]

Foreign policy

In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[204] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[205]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran.[206] This attempt was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[207] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara,Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[208] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "a new beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[209]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."[210] On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[211]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[212]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[213][214] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[215] The New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and was ratified by the U.S. Senate in December 2010.[216]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[217]

Iraq War

On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."[218] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011.[needs update] On August 19, 2010, the last United States combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[219][220] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[221] On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays".[222]

War in Afghanistan

Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[223] He announced an increase to U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires".[224] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[225] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[226] He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[227][needs update] McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[228]

Israel

Obama meeting with Israeli PresidentShimon Peres, 2009
Obama referred to the bond between the United States and Israel as "unbreakable."[229] During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries.[230] The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the waves of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[231]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[232] Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[233]

War in Libya

In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution[234] passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[235] In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi who had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of Benghazi[236]—announced an immediate cessation of military activities,[237] yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took a lead role in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[238] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[239][240][241] Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector.[242] Some Representatives[243] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[244][245]
President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death
President Obama's address (Full Text) Wikisource has information on "Remarks by the President on Osama bin Laden"

President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death
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Osama bin Laden


Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad.[246] CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[246] Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs.[246] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound.[247][248] Bin Laden's body was identified through DNA testing,[249] and buried at sea several hours later.[250] Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square.[247][251] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[252] and from many countries around the world.[253]

Cultural and political image

Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[255] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong".[256]Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[257]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[258] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[259]
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68% approval rating[260] before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41% in August 2010,[261] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[262] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[263][264][265] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[266] and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures including British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[267]Italy's Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[268] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[269
Obama conducting the first completely virtual interview from the White House in 2012[254]
In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[270] In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.[271][272]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[273] His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video "Yes We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month[274] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[275] In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[276]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[277] Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[278] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[279][280] Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.

Family and personal life

Obama talks with pub-goers as the First Lady draws a pint of stout at the Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Ireland, in 2011
Obama posing in the Green Room of the White House with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009
Obama about to take a shot while three other players look at him. One of those players is holding is arms up in an attempt to block Obama.
Obama taking a shot during a game on the White House basketball court, 2009

In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[281] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family – six of them living.[282] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[283] until her death on November 2, 2008,[284] two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[285] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[286]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[287]Besides his native English, Obama speaks some basic Indonesian, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta,[288][289] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team[290]and he is left-handed.[291]
Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[292]In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[293] He is also primarily aChicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President.[294] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[295]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[296] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[297] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[298] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[299] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[300] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[301] The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[302]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[303] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[304]
In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[305] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[306][307] On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14% to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[308][309] As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[310]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.[311][312]

Religious views

Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists"), to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He described his father as a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizerwhile in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change".[313]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today, Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[314] On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me."[315][316]
Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988, and was an active member there for two decades.[317] He resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[318] After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[319]

Notes

  1. ^ "President Barack Obama". Washington, D.C.: The White House. 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
  2. ^ a b "Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II, August 4, 1961, 7:24 pm, Honolulu". Department of Health, State of Hawaii (The White House). April 27, 2011. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
  3. ^ "American President: Barack Obama". Charlottesville, VA: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. 2009. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009. Retrieved January 23, 2009. "Religion: Christian"
    • "The Truth about Barack's Faith". Obama for America. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
    • Miller, Lisa (July 18, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek. Archived fromthe original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2010. "He is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago."
    • Barakat, Matthew (November 17, 2008). "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized; D.C. churches have started extending invitations to Obama and his family". Associated Press. msnbc.com. Archived from the originalon January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2009. "The United Church of Christ, the denomination from which Obama resigned when he left Wright's church, issued a written invitation to join a UCC denomination in Washington and resume his connections to the church.".
    • "Barack Obama, long time UCC member, inaugurated forty-fourth U.S. President". United Church of Christ. January 20, 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2009. "Barack Obama, who spent more than 20 years as a UCC member, is the forty-fourth President of the United States."
    • Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obama's find a church home—away from home". Time. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.".
    • Kornblut, Anne E. (February 4, 2010). "Obama's spirituality is largely private, but it's influential, advisers say". The Washington Post. p. A6. Retrieved February 5, 2010. "Obama prays privately ... And when he takes his family to Camp David on the weekends, a Navy chaplain ministers to them, with the daughters attending a form of Sunday school there."
  4. ^ Maraniss, David (August 24, 2008). "Though Obama had to leave to find himself, it is Hawaii that made his rise possible". The Washington Post. p. A22. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  5. ^ Nakaso, Dan (December 22, 2008). "Twin sisters, Obama on parallel paths for years". The Honolulu Advertiser. p. B1. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  6. ^ Rudin, Ken (December 23, 2009). "Today's Junkie segment On TOTN: a political review Of 2009". Talk of the Nation (Political Junkie blog) (NPR). Retrieved April 18, 2010. "We began with the historic inauguration on January 20—yes, the first president ever born in Hawaii"
  7. ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 12.
  8. ^ Jones, Tim (March 27, 2007). "Barack Obama: Mother not just a girl from Kansas; Stanley Ann Dunham shaped a future senator". Chicago Tribune. p. 1 (Tempo). Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  9. ^ a b Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 9–10.
    • Scott (2011), pp. 80–86.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118.
    • Maraniss (2012), p. 154–160.
  10. ^ Ripley, Amanda (April 9, 2008). "The story of Barack Obama's mother".Time. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  11. ^ Scott (2011), p. 86.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 125–127.
    • Maraniss (2012), p. 160–163.
  12. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 87–93.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 115–118, 125–127, 133–161.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 170–183, 188–189.
  13. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 142–144.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 161–177, 227–230.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 190–194, 201–209, 227–230.
  14. ^ Ochieng, Philip (November 1, 2004). "From home squared to the US Senate: how Barack Obama was lost and found". The EastAfrican. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
    • Merida, Kevin (December 14, 2007). "The ghost of a father". The Washington Post. p. A12. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
    • Jacobs (2011), pp. 251–255.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 411–417.
  15. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 97–103.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 225–230.
  16. ^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 195–201, 209–223, 230–244.
  17. ^ Maraniss (2012), pp. 216, 221, 230, 234–244.
  18. ^ Serafin, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Punahou grad stirs up Illinois politics".Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
    • Scott, Janny (March 14, 2008). "A free-spirited wanderer who set Obama's path". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 3 and 4.
    • Scott (2012), pp. 131–134.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 264–269.
  19. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 139–157.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281.
  20. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 157–194.
    • Maraniss (2012), pp. 279–281, 324–326.
  21. ^ Scott (2011), pp. 214, 294, 317–346.
  22. ^ Serrano, Richard A. (March 11, 2007). "Obama's peers didn't see his angst". Los Angeles Times. p. A20. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), Chapters 4 and 5.
  23. ^ Reyes, B.J. (February 8, 2007). "Punahou left lasting impression on Obama". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved February 10, 2007. "As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were mostly attended by blacks."
  24. ^ Elliott, Philip (November 21, 2007). "Obama gets blunt with N.H. students".The Boston Globe (Associated Press). p. 8A. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  25. ^ Karl, Jonathan (May 25, 2012). "Obama and his pot-smoking "choom gang"". ABC News. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 93–94.
    • for analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a kid, I inhaled"), see:
    • Seelye, Katharine Q. (October 24, 2006). "Obama offers more variations from the norm". The New York Times. p. A21. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
    • Romano, Lois (January 3, 2007). "Effect of Obama's candor remains to be seen". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved January 14, 2007.
  26. ^ "FRONTLINE The Choice 2012". PBS. October 9, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  27. ^ Hornick, Ed (August 17, 2008). "Obama, McCain talk issues at pastor's forum". CNN. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  28. ^ a b Gordon, Larry (January 29, 2007). "Occidental recalls 'Barry' Obama".Los Angeles Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on May 24, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Possley, Maurice (March 30, 2007). "Activism blossomed in college".Chicago Tribune. p. 20. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Kovaleski, Serge F. (February 9, 2008). "Old friends say drugs played bit part in Obama's young life". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Rohter, Larry (April 10, 2008). "Obama says real-life experience trumps rivals' foreign policy credits". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Goldman, Adam; Tanner, Robert (May 15, 2008). "Old friends recall Obama's years in LA, NYC". USA Today (Associated Press). Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Helman, Scott (August 25, 2008). "Small college awakened future senator to service (subscription archive)". The Boston Globe. p. 1A. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Jackson, Brooks (June 5, 2009). "More 'birther' nonsense: Obama's 1981 Pakistan trip". FactCheck.org. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
    • Remnick, David (2010). The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 98–112. ISBN 978-1-4000-4360-6.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 92–112.
    • Mendell (2007), pp. 55–62.
  29. ^ Boss-Bicak, Shira (January 2005). "Barack Obama '83". ISSN 0572-7820. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
  30. ^ Obama, Barack (1998). "Curriculum vitae". The University of Chicago Law School. Archived from the original on May 9, 2001. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
    • Issenberg, Sasha (August 6, 2008). "Obama shows hints of his year in global finance; Tied markets to social aid". The Boston Globe. p. 1A. Archived from the original on August 9, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  31. ^ Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). "Obama's account of New York often differs from what others say". The New York Times. p. B1. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 133–140.
    • Mendell (2007), pp. 62–63.
  32. ^ a b c d Chassie, Karen, ed. (2007). Who's Who in America, 2008. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who. p. 3468. ISBN 978-0-8379-7011-0.
  33. ^ Lizza, Ryan (March 19, 2007). "The agitator: Barack Obama's unlikely political education". The New Republic 236 (12): 22–26, 28–29. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
    • Secter, Bob; McCormick, John (March 30, 2007). "Portrait of a pragmatist".Chicago Tribune. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 14, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
    • Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 140–295.
    • Mendell (2007), pp. 63–83.
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  279. ^ Philp, Catherine (October 10, 2009). "Barack Obama's peace prize starts a fight". The Times (London). Retrieved October 10, 2009.
  280. ^ Samuelsohn, Darren (October 9, 2009). "Obama Wins Nobel Prize in Part for Confronting 'Great Climatic Challenges'". The New York Times (Greenwire). Archived from the original on April 15, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
  281. ^ "Keeping Hope Alive: Barack Obama Puts Family First". The Oprah Winfrey Show. October 18, 2006. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  282. ^ Fornek, Scott (September 9, 2007). "Half Siblings: 'A Complicated Family'".Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2008. See also:"Interactive Family Tree". Chicago Sun-Times. September 9, 2007. Archived from the original on July 3, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  283. ^ Fornek, Scott (September 9, 2007). "Madelyn Payne Dunham: 'A Trailblazer'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  284. ^ "Obama's grandmother dies after battle with cancer". CNN. November 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November 3, 2008. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  285. ^ Smolenyak, Megan (May 9, 2011). "Tracing Barack Obama's Roots to Moneygall". The Huffington Post.
  286. ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 13. For reports on Obama's maternal genealogy, including slave owners, Irish connections, and common ancestors with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Harry Truman, see:Nitkin, David; Harry Merritt (March 2, 2007). "A New Twist to an Intriguing Family History". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2008.Jordan, Mary (May 13, 2007). "Tiny Irish Village Is Latest Place to Claim Obama as Its Own". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 24, 2008."Obama's Family Tree Has a Few Surprises". Associated Press. CBS 2 (Chicago). September 8, 2007. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  287. ^ "When Barry Became Barack". Newsweek. March 31, 2008. Archived fromthe original on October 29, 2008. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
  288. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (2009). "Obama's Indonesian Redux". Language Log. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
    • Obama: Saya Kangen Nasi Goreng, Bakso, dan Rambutan
  289. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (January 23, 2009). "Obama's Indonesian pleasantries: the video". Language Log (University of Pennsylvania). Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  290. ^ Kantor, Jodi (June 1, 2007). "One Place Where Obama Goes Elbow to Elbow". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008. See also: "The Love of the Game" (video). Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO). April 15, 2008. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  291. ^ Stolberg, Sheryl Gay; Kirkpatrick, David D.; Shane, Scott (22 January 2009)."On First Day, Obama Quickly Sets a New Tone". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  292. ^ "Barack Obama: White Sox 'serious' ball". The Swamp. August 25, 2008. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
  293. ^ "Barack Obama Explains White Sox Jacket, Talks Nats in All-Star Booth Visit". MLB Fanhouse. July 14, 2009. Retrieved December 6, 2009.
  294. ^ Branigin, William (January 30, 2009). "Steelers Win Obama's Approval".The Washington Post. "But other than the Bears, the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart."
  295. ^ Mayer, Larry (2011-10-07). "1985 Bears honored by President Obama".Chicago Bears. Retrieved 2012-11-04.
  296. ^ Obama (2006), pp. 327–332. See also:Brown, Sarah (December 7, 2005)."Obama '85 masters balancing act". The Daily Princetonian. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
  297. ^ Obama (2006), p. 329.
  298. ^ Fornek, Scott (October 3, 2007). "Michelle Obama: 'He Swept Me Off My Feet'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  299. ^ Martin, Jonathan (July 4, 2008). "Born on the 4th of July". Politico. Archived from the original on July 10, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2008.
  300. ^ Obama (1995, 2004), p. 440, and Obama (2006), pp. 339–340. See also:"Election 2008 Information Center: Barack Obama". Gannett News Service. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  301. ^ "Obamas choose private Sidwell Friends School", International Herald Tribune, November 22, 2008
  302. ^ Cooper, Helene (April 13, 2009). "One Obama Search Ends With a Puppy Named Bo". The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  303. ^ Zeleny, Jeff (December 24, 2005). "The first time around: Sen. Obama's freshman year". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  304. ^ Slevin, Peter (December 17, 2006). "Obama says he regrets land deal with fundraiser". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
    • Robinson, Mike (June 4, 2008). "Rezko found guilty in corruption case". Associated Press. msnbc.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  305. ^ Harris, Marlys (December 7, 2007). "Obama's Money". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
    See also:Goldfarb, Zachary A (March 24, 2007). "Measuring Wealth of the '08 Candidates". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  306. ^ Zeleny, Jeff (April 17, 2008). "Book Sales Lifted Obamas' Income in 2007 to a Total of $4.2 Million". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  307. ^ Shear, Michael D.; Hilzenrath, David S. (April 16, 2010). "Obamas report $5.5 million in income on 2009 tax return". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  308. ^ Solman, Paul (April 18, 2011). "How Much Did President Obama Make in 2010?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  309. ^ Solman, Paul (April 27, 2011). "The Obamas Gave $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation in 2010; What Is It?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  310. ^ Wolf, Richard (May 16, 2012). "Obama worth as much as $10 million". USA Today. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  311. ^ Elsner, Alan (December 7, 2008). Obama says he won't be smoking in White House". Reuters. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  312. ^ Zengerle, Patricia (February 8, 2011). "Yes, he did: first lady says Obama quit smoking". Reuters. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
  313. ^ Obama (2006), pp. 202–208. Portions excerpted in: Obama, Barack (October 16, 2006). "My Spiritual Journey". Time. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
    • Obama, Barack (June 28, 2006). "'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address". Barack Obama: U.S. Senator for Illinois. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2008.
  314. ^ Christianity Today: "Q&A: Barack Obama" Interview by Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen, January 23, 2008.
  315. ^ Obama 'Christian By Choice': President Responds To Questioner by Charles Babington and Darlene Superville, Associated Press, September 28, 2010
  316. ^ Video – President Obama: "I am a Christian By Choice" by ABC News, September 29, 2010.
  317. ^ Kantor, Jodi (April 30, 2007). "Barack Obama's search for faith". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2007.
  318. ^ "Obama's church choice likely to be scrutinized". Associated Press. msnbc.com. November 17, 2008. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
  319. ^ Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obamas Find a Church Home—Away from Home". Time. Retrieved December 14, 2009.

References


  • Jacobs, Sally H. (2011). The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-793-5.
  • Maraniss, David (2012). Barack Obama: The Story. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-6040-4.
  • Mendell, David (2007). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-085820-9.
  • Obama, Barack (1995, 2004). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-1-4000-8277-3.
  • Obama, Barack (2006). The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-23769-9.
  • Scott, Janny (2011). A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-1-59448-797-2.

Further reading

  • Graff, Garrett. "The Legend of Barack Obama", Washingtonian, November 1, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
  • Koltun, Dave (2005) "The 2004 Illinois Senate Race: Obama Wins Open Seat and Becomes National Political "Star"" in "The Road to Congress 2004" Editors: Sunil Ahuja (Youngstown State University) and Robert Dewhirst (Truman State University), Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2005, ISBN 1-59454-360-7
  • Lizza, Ryan. "Above the Fray", GQ, September 2007. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
  • MacFarquhar, Larissa. "The Conciliator: Where is Barack Obama Coming From?", The New Yorker, May 7, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
  • McClelland, Edward, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President, Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
  • Zutter, Hank De. "What Makes Obama Run?", Chicago Reader, December 8, 1995. Retrieved January 14, 2008.

    External links

    Official
    • President Barack Obama White House official website
    • BarackObama.com (official re-election campaign website)
    Other
    • Background and collected news at The Washington Post
    • Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
    • Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
    • Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
    • Congressional profile at GovTrack
    • Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
    • Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
    • Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
    • Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
    • Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
    • Appearances on C-SPAN programs
    • Appearances on Charlie Rose
    • Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
    • Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
    • Collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
    • Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
    • Works by or about Barack Obama in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
    • Collected news and commentary at the Chicago Tribune
    • Barack Obama at the Open Directory Project





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Romney in 201170th Governor of MassachusettsIn office
January 2, 2003 – January 4, 2007LieutenantKerry HealeyPreceded byPaul Celluci
Jane Swift (Acting)Succeeded byDeval Patrick






















Mitt Romney


Dark-haired man with graying hair at the temples, dressed in dark suit, at a nighttime indoor event
Romney in 2011
70th Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 2, 2003 – January 4, 2007
Lieutenant Kerry Healey
Preceded by Paul Celluci
Jane Swift (Acting)
Succeeded by Deval Patrick


Personal details
Born Willard Mitt Romney
March 12, 1947 (age 65)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Ann Romney
(1969–present)
Children 5
Residence Belmont, Massachusetts
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
San Diego, California
Alma mater Brigham Young University (BA)
Harvard University (MBA, JD)
Profession Management consultant,Venture capitalist, Private equity
Religion The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Positions Cofounder and CEO, Bain Capital (1984–2002)
CEO, Bain & Company (1991–92)
CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee (1999–2002)
Signature Signature "Mitt Romney", first name more legible than last name
Website MittRomney.com
Brick buildings facing a courtyard

Romney began attendingCranbrook School in 1959

Man smiling at right with sign in background and parents holding toddler at left
Campaigning for U.S. Senate in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1994

Brick buildings facing a courtyard

Romney began attendingCranbrook School in 1959

Man smiling at right with sign in background and parents holding toddler at left
Campaigning for U.S. Senate in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1994

Photograph of Romney standing with microphone in middle of curling lanes

Romney, as president and CEO of theSalt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics, speaking before a curlingmatch

Mitt Romney resting on a wooden desk, flanked by an American flag, a picture of his wife, a lamp, and a painting of mountains

Massachusetts State House portrait of Governor Mitt Romney, by artist Richard Whitney, with Ann Romney pictured to the right

Mitt Romney addressing an audience from atop a stage

Holding an "Ask Mitt Anything" session in Ames, Iowa, in May 2007

Casual photograph of Mitt and Ann Romney outdoors with wind blowing her hair

Romneys on Mackinac Island at the September 2007 Republican Leadership Conference

Photograph of Romney working a lunch counter line, with citizens and press photographers crowding around
Romney making an appearance in Livonia, Michigan, days after his June 2011 formal campaign announcement
Mitt Romney sitting outdoors during daytime, with crowd behind him holding up blue and white "Romney" signs
Giving an interview at a supporters rally inParadise Valley, Arizona

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan seen in medium distance on an outdoor stage, with large crowd around them
With running mate Paul Ryan in Norfolk, Virginia, during the vice presidential selection announcement on August 11, 201
Photograph of Romney flanked by two other men at a formal awards occasion
Receiving the 2006 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award on behalf of his state

Plain logo consisting of green serif letters against white background
Logo of company where Romney began his business career

1968 campaign poster showing a smiling George Romney
Mitt's father George (pictured here in a 1968 poster) lost the Republican presidential nomination to Richard M. Nixon but later served in Nixon's cabinet.

campaign button advocating Lenore Romney for U. S. Senate
Mitt's mother Lenore (promoted here on a button) lost a Senate race in 1970, and he worked for her campaign.

Plain logo consisting of white serif letters against dark blue background
Logo of Bain Capital, the private equity firmRomney cofounded in 1984

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 election. From 2003 to 2007, he served as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts.
Raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan by his parents Lenore and George W. Romney, Mitt Romney spent two and a half years in Franceas a Mormon missionary starting in 1966. He married Ann Davies in 1969, with whom he has had five children. By 1971, Romney had participated in the political campaigns of both his parents. In that year, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young and in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard. Romney then entered the management consulting industry and in 1977 he secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its chief executive officer, he helped lead the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he cofounded and led the spin-off company Bain Capital, a highly profitable private equity investment firm that became one of the largest of its kind in the nation. His considerable net worth, estimated in 2012 at $190–250 million, helped finance his prior political campaigns.
Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Romney served during his business career as the bishop of his ward (head of his local congregation) and then stake president in his home area near Boston. After stepping down from Bain Capital and his local leadership role in the church, he ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 Massachusetts election for U.S. Senate. Upon losing to longtime incumbent Ted Kennedy, he resumed his position at Bain Capital. Years later, a successful stint as President and CEO of theSalt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics led to a relaunch of his political career.
Elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Romney helped develop and enact into law the Massachusetts health care reformlegislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which provided near-universal health insurance access through state-level subsidies andindividual mandates to purchase insurance. He also presided over the elimination of a projected $1.2–1.5 billion deficit through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and the closure of corporate tax loopholes. Romney did not seek re-election in 2006, instead focusing on his campaign for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He won several primaries and caucuses but lost the nomination to John McCain. In 2011, he began campaigning for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, eventually winning enough caucuses and primaries to be nominated with his chosen running mate, Representative Paul Ryan. Romney faces incumbent President Barack Obama in the November 2012 general election.

Early life and education

Willard Mitt Romney[1] was born on March 12, 1947, at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan,[2] the youngest child of automobile executive George W. Romney and homemaker Lenore Romney (née LaFount).[3] His mother was a native of Logan, Utah, and his father was born to American parents in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico.[4][5] Of primarily English descent, he also has Scottish and German ancestry.[6][7][8] A fifth-generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), his great-great-grandfather Miles Romney converted to the faith in its first decade, and another great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, helped lead the early Church.[9][10][11]
Younger than his three siblings – Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott – Mitt followed them after a gap of nearly six years.[12] His parents named him after a family friend, businessman J. Willard Marriott, and his father's cousin, Milton "Mitt" Romney, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears.[13] Romney was referred to as "Billy" until kindergarten, when he indicated a preference for "Mitt".[14] In 1953, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills.[15] His father became the chairman and CEO ofAmerican Motors the following year, soon helping the company avoid bankruptcy and return to profitability.[15] By 1959, his father had become a nationally known figure in print and on television,[16] and the youngster idolized him.[17]

At Cranbrook, Romney helped manage the ice hockey team, and he joined the
 pep squad.[18] During his senior year, he joined the cross country running team.[14] He belonged to eleven school organizations and school clubs overall, including the Blue Key Club, a booster group he had started.[18] During his final year there, he improved academically but fell short of excellence.[17][19] Romney became involved in several pranks while attending Cranbrook. He has since apologized, stating that some of the pranks may have gone too far.[nb 1] In March of his senior year, he began dating Ann Davies; she attended the private Kingswood School, the sister school to Cranbrook.[19][26] The two became informally engaged around the time of his June 1965 graduation.[17][22]Romney attended public elementary schools until the seventh grade, when he enrolled as one of only a few Mormon students at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, a traditional private boys' preparatory school.[14][18] Many students there came from backgrounds even more privileged than his.[19] Not particularly athletic, he also did not distinguish himself academically.[17] He participated in his father's successful 1962 Michigan gubernatorial campaign,[20] and later worked for him as an intern in the Governor's office.[17][21] Romney took up residence at Cranbrook when his newly elected father began spending most of his time at the state capitol.[18]
Brick buildings facing a courtyard

Romney began attendingCranbrook School in 1959

University, France mission, marriage, and children: 1965–75

Romney attended Stanford University during the academic year of 1965–66.[17] He was not part of the counterculture of the 1960s then taking form in the San Francisco Bay Area.[17] As opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War grew, a group staged a May 1966 sit-in at the university administration building to demonstrate against draft status tests; Romney joined a counter-protest against that group.[17][27] He continued to enjoy occasional pranks.[nb 2]
In July 1966, he left the U.S. for a thirty-month stay in France as a Mormon missionary,[17][30] a traditional rite of passage in his family.[nb 3] He arrived in Le Havre, where he shared cramped quarters under meager conditions.[10][32] Rules against drinking, smoking, and dating were strictly enforced.[10] Most individual Mormon missionaries do not gain many converts[nb 4] and Romney was no exception:[32] he later estimated ten to twenty for his entire mission.[37][nb 5] He initially became demoralized and later recalled it as the only time when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected."[32] He soon gained recognition within the mission for the many homes he called on and the repeat visits he was granted.[10] He was promoted to zone leader in Bordeaux in early 1968, and soon thereafter became assistant to the mission president in Paris.[10][32][39] Residing at the Mission Home for several months, he enjoyed a mansion far more comfortable than the lodgings he had elsewhere in the country.[39] When the French expressed opposition to the U.S. role in the Vietnam War, Romney debated them in return, and his views were reinforced by those who yelled and slammed their doors.[10][32]
In June 1968, an automobile he was driving in southern France was hit by another vehicle, seriously injuring him and killing one of his passengers, the wife of the mission president.[nb 6] Romney was not at fault in the accident.[nb 6] He became co-president of a mission that had become demoralized and disorganized after the May 1968 general strike and student uprisings and the car accident.[40] With Romney rallying the others, the mission met a goal of 200 baptisms for the year, the most for them in a decade.[40] By the end of his stint in December 1968, he was overseeing the work of 175 others.[32][41] As a result of his stay, Romney developed a lifelong affection for France and its people, and has remained fluent in French.[43][44]
At their first meeting following his return, Romney and Ann Davies reconnected and decided to get married.[45] Romney began attendingBrigham Young University (BYU), where she had been studying.[46] The couple married on March 21, 1969, in a civil ceremony in Bloomfield Hills.[47][48] The following day, they flew to Utah for a Mormon wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple (Ann had converted to the faithwhile he was away).[47][48]
Mitt had missed much of the tumultuous American anti-Vietnam War movement while away in France. Upon his return, it surprised him to learn that his father had joined the movement during his unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign.[32] George was now serving in President Richard Nixon's cabinet as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In a June 1970 newspaper profile of children of cabinet members, Mitt said that U.S. involvement in the war had been misguided – "If it wasn't a political blunder to move into Vietnam, I don't know what is" – but supported Nixon's ongoing Cambodian Incursion as a sincere attempt to bring the war to a conclusion.[49] During the U.S. military draft for the Vietnam War, Romney sought and received two 2-S student deferments, then a 4-D ministerial deferment while living in France as a Mormon missionary. He later sought and received two additional student deferments.[27][50] When those ran out, the result of the December 1969 draft lottery ensured he would not be selected.[27][50][51]
At culturally conservative BYU, Romney remained isolated from much of the upheaval of that era.[32][46] He became president of the Cougar Club booster organization and showed a new-found discipline in his studies.[32][46] During his senior year, he took a leave to work as driver and advance man for his mother Lenore Romney's eventually unsuccessful 1970 campaign for U.S. Senator from Michigan;[22][47] together, they visited all 83 Michigan counties.[52][53] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with highest honors in 1971,[46] giving commencement addresses to both the College of Humanities and to the whole of BYU.[nb 7]
The Romneys' first son, Taggart, was born in 1970[34] while they were undergraduates at BYU and living in a basement apartment.[46] Ann subsequently gave birth to Matthew (1971) and Joshua (1975). Benjamin (1978) and Craig (1981) would arrive later, after Romney began his career.[34]
Mitt Romney wanted to pursue a business career, but his father advised him that a law degree would be valuable to his career even if he did not become a lawyer.[56][57] Thus, he enrolled in the recently created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.[58]He readily adapted to the business school's pragmatic, data-driven case study method of teaching.[57] Living in a Belmont, Massachusetts house with Ann and their two children, his social experience differed from most of his classmates'.[47][57] He was nonideological and did not involve himself in the political issues of the day.[47][57] He graduated in 1975cum laude from the law school, in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.[54][58]

Business career

Management consulting

Plain logo consisting of green serif letters against white background
Logo of company where Romney began his business career

1968 campaign poster showing a smiling George Romney
Mitt's father George (pictured here in a 1968 poster) lost the Republican presidential nomination to Richard M. Nixon but later served in Nixon's cabinet.

campaign button advocating Lenore Romney for U. S. Senate
Mitt's mother Lenore (promoted here on a button) lost a Senate race in 1970, and he worked for her campaign.
Recruited by several firms, Romney joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant for a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive.[56][59][nb 8] Part of a 1970s wave of top graduates who chose to go into consulting rather than join a large company directly,[61] he found his legal and business education useful in his job.[56] He applied BCG principles such as the growth-share matrix,[62] and executives viewed him as having a bright future there.[56][63]
In 1977, he was hired by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and other ex-BCG employees.[56][62][64] Bain would later say of the thirty-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older."[65] Unlike other consulting firms, which issued recommendations and then departed, Bain & Company immersed itself in a client's business and worked with them until changes were implemented.[56][62] Romney became a vice-president of the firm in 1978,[14] and worked with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated.[59] Within a few years, the firm considered him one of their best consultants and clients sometimes sought to use him over more senior partners.[56][66]
Two family incidents during this time later came to light during Romney's political career. A confrontation with a park ranger in 1981 became public in 1994,[nb 9] and from 2007 on there has been persistent interest in a 1983 family road trip with a dog on the roof.[47][68]

Private equity

In 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to cofound the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital.[69] He had initially refrained from accepting Bill Bain's offer to head the new venture, until Bain rearranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney.[56][65][70] Bain and Romney raised the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation, which had seven employees.[59][71] Romney held the titles of president[72] and managing general partner.[73][74] The sole shareholder of the firm, publications also referred to him as managing director or CEO.[75][76][77]
Initially, Bain Capital focused on venture capital investments. Romney set up a system in which any partner could veto one of these potential opportunities, and he personally saw so many weaknesses that few venture capital investments were approved in the initial two years.[56] The firm's first significant success was a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies and Romney convinced others; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.[56][71][78]
Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing companies with money mostly borrowed from banking institutions using the newly bought companies' assets as collateral, then taking steps to improve the companies' value, and finally selling those companies once their value peaked, usually within a few years.[56][65] Bain Capital lost money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then found deals that made large returns.[56] The firm invested in or acquired Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as some lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors.[56][65][79] Much of the firm's profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall success-to-failure ratio was about even.[nb 10]
Romney discovered few investment opportunities himself (and those that he did, often failed to make money for the firm).[81] Instead, he focused on analyzing the merits of possible deals that others brought forward and on recruiting investors to participate in them once approved.[81] Within Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than ten percent for himself.[82] Data-driven, Romney often played the role of a devil's advocate during exhaustive analysis of whether to go forward with a deal.[56][78] He wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners disagreed with him and it eventually gained billions.[56] He opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films.[56] Romney served on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, and the fraud was discovered by the new owners (Romney was never implicated).[56] In some cases, Romney had little involvement with a company once acquired.[71]
Bain Capital's leveraged buyouts sometimes led to layoffs, either soon after acquisition or later after the firm had concluded its role.[62][70][71] Exactly how many jobs Bain Capital added compared to those lost because of these investments and buyouts is unknown, owing to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy on behalf of itself and its investors.[83][84][85] Maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's fundamental goal.[71][86] Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy.[56][78][86] Dade Behring was another case where Bain Capital received an eightfold return on its investment, but the company itself was saddled with debt and laid off over a thousand employees before Bain Capital exited (the company subsequently went into bankruptcy, with more layoffs, before recovering and prospering).[83] Referring to the layoffs that happened, Romney said in 2007: "Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong."[70]
In 1990, facing financial collapse, Bain & Company asked Romney to return.[69] Announced as its new CEO in January 1991,[73][74] he drew a symbolic salary of one dollar[69](remaining managing general partner of Bain Capital during this time).[73][74] He oversaw an effort to restructure Bain & Company's employee stock-ownership plan and real-estate deals, while rallying the firm's one thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that excluded Bain and the other founding partners from control, and increasing fiscal transparency.[56][59][69] He got Bain and other initial owners who had removed excessive amounts of money from the firm to return a substantial amount, and persuaded creditors, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to accept less than full payment.[87] Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability.[59] He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.[56][88][89]
Plain logo consisting of white serif letters against dark blue background
Logo of Bain Capital, the private equity firmRomney cofounded in 1984
Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital from November 1993 to November 1994 to run for the U.S. Senate.[47][90] During that time, Ampad workers went on strike, and asked Romney to intervene. Against the advice of Bain Capital lawyers, Romney met the strikers, but told them he had no position of active authority in the matter.[91][92]
By 1999, Bain Capital was on its way towards becoming one of the foremost private equity firms in the nation,[70] having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, with 115 employees overall, and $4 billion under its management.[65][71] The firm's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent[59][93] and its average yearly return to investors was around 50–80 percent.[80]
Romney took a paid leave of absence from Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee.[94][95] Billed in some public statements as keeping a part-time role,[94][96] Romney remained the firm's sole shareholder, managing director, CEO, and president, signing corporate and legal documents, attending to his interests within the firm, and conducting prolonged negotiations for the terms of his departure.[94][97] He did not involve himself in day-to-day operations of the firm or investment decisions for Bain Capital's new private equity funds.[94][97] He retained his position on several boards of directors during this time and regularly returned to Massachusetts to attend meetings.[98]
In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital.[99] His separation from the firm concluded in early 2002;[94] he transferred his ownership to other partners and negotiated an agreement that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds.[82][100] The private equity business continued to thrive, earning him millions of dollars in annual income.[82]

Personal wealth

As a result of his business career, Romney and his wife have a net worth of between $190 and $250 million,[100][101] including their retirement account, worth between $20 and $100 million.[102] Most of that wealth has been held in blind trusts since 2003, some of it offshore.[100][103][104] An additional blind trust, valued at $100 million in 2012, exists in the name of their children.[105][106] In 2010, Romney and his wife received about $22 million in income, almost all of it from investments such as dividends, capital gains, and carried interest; and they paid about $3 million in federal income taxes, for an effective tax rate of 14 percent.[107] For the years 1990–2010, their effective federal tax rates were above 13 percent with an average rate of about 20 percent.[108]
Romney has tithed to the LDS Church regularly, and donated to LDS Church-owned BYU.[10][11][109] In 2010, for example, he and his wife gave $1.5 million to the church.[107] The Romney family's Tyler Charitable Foundation gave out about $650,000 in that year, some of which went to organizations that fight diseases.[110] For the years 1990–2010, the Romneys' total charitable donations as portions of their income averaged 14 percent.[108]

Local LDS Church leadership

During his business career, Romney held several positions in the local lay clergy. In 1977, he became a counselor to the president of the Boston Stake.[111] He served as bishop of the ward (ecclesiastical and administrative head of his congregation) at Belmont, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1986.[112][113] As such, in addition to home teaching, he also formulated Sunday services and classes using LDS scriptures to guide the congregation.[114] After the destruction of the Belmont meetinghouse by a fire of suspicious origins in 1984, he forged links with other religious institutions, allowing the congregation to rotate its meetings to other houses of worship during the reconstruction of their building.[113][115]
From 1986 to 1994, Romney presided over the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen wards in eastern Massachusetts with almost 4,000 church members altogether.[66][114][116] He organized a team to handle financial and management issues, sought to counter anti-Mormon sentiments, and tried to solve social problems among poor Southeast Asian converts.[113][115] An unpaid position, his local church leadership often took 30 or more hours a week of his time,[114] and he became known for his considerable energy in the role.[66] He earned a reputation for avoiding any overnight travel that might interfere with his church responsibilities.[114]
Romney took a hands-on role in general matters, helping in domestic maintenance efforts, visiting the sick, and counseling burdened church members.[112][113][114] A number of local church members later credited him with turning their lives around or helping them through difficult times.[113][114][115] Others, rankled by his leadership style, desired a more consensus-based approach.[113] Romney tried to balance the conservative directives from church leadership in Utah with the desire of some Massachusetts members to have a more flexible application of religious doctrine.[66] He agreed with some requests from the liberal women's group that published Exponent II for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but clashed with women whom he felt were departing too much from doctrine.[66] In particular, he counseled women to not have abortions except in the rare cases allowed by LDS doctrine,[nb 11] and encouraged single women facing unplanned pregnancies to give up their baby for adoption.[66] Romney later said that the years spent as an LDS minister gave him direct exposure to people struggling financially and empathy for those with family problems.[117]

1994 U.S. senatorial campaign

For much of his business career, Romney did not take public, political stances.[118][119] He had kept abreast of national politics since college,[32]though, and the circumstances of his father's presidential campaign loss had irked him for decades.[22] He registered as an Independent[47] and voted in the 1992 presidential primaries for the Democratic former senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas.[118][120]
By 1993, Romney had begun thinking about entering politics, partly based upon Ann's urging and partly to follow in his father's footsteps.[47] He decided to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who was seeking re-election for the sixth time. Political pundits viewed Kennedy as vulnerable that year – in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole, and in part because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which the senator had suffered some negative public relations regarding his character.[121][122][123] Romney changed his affiliation to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994.[47] In addition to his leave from Bain Capital, he stepped down from his church leadership role in 1994.[114]
Radio personality Janet Jeghelian took an early lead in polls among candidates for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat, but Romney proved the most effective fundraiser.[124][125] He won 68 percent of the vote at the May 1994 Massachusetts Republican Party convention; businessman John Lakian finished a distant second, eliminating Jeghelian.[126] Romney defeated Lakian in the September 1994 primary with more than 80 percent of the vote.[14][127]
In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious re-election challenger of his career.[121] The younger, telegenic, and well-funded Romney ran as a businessman who stated he had created ten thousand jobs and as a Washington outsider with a solid family image and moderate stances on social issues.[121][128] When Kennedy tried to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Romney responded, "Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush."[129] Romney stated, "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change."[130]
Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime, but had trouble establishing its own consistent positions.[131] By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race to be approximately even.[121][132][133] Kennedy responded with a series of ads that focused on Romney's seemingly shifting political views on issues such as abortion;[134]Romney would respond on the latter by stating, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country."[135] Other Kennedy ads centered on layoffs of workers at the Ampad plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital.[121][136] The latter was effective in blunting Romney's momentum.[78] Kennedy and Romney held a widely watched late-October debate that had no clear winner, but by then, Kennedy had pulled ahead in polls and stayed ahead afterward.[137] Romney spent $3 million of his own money in the race and more than $7 million overall.[138][nb 12] In the November general election, despite a disastrous showing for Democrats nationwide, Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent,[56] the smallest margin in any of Kennedy's re-election campaigns for the Senate.[141]
Man smiling at right with sign in background and parents holding toddler at left
Campaigning for U.S. Senate in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1994

The day after the election, Romney returned to Bain Capital, but the loss had a lasting effect; he told his brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win."[47][142]When his father died in 1995, Mitt donated his inheritance to BYU's George W. Romney Institute of Public Management.[55] He also joined the board, as vice-chair, of the Points of Light Foundation,[99] which had incorporated his father's National Volunteer Center. Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; the goal of simply making more money was becoming inadequate for him.[47][142] Although no longer in a local leadership position in his church, he still taught Sunday School.[112] During the long and controversial approval and construction process for the $30 million Mormon temple in Belmont, he feared that, as a political figure who had opposed Kennedy, he would become a focal point for opposition to the structure.[113] He thus kept to a limited, behind-the-scenes role in attempts to ease tensions between the church and local residents.[112][113][115]

2002 Winter Olympics

In 1998, Ann Romney learned that she had multiple sclerosis; Mitt described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life.[47] After experiencing two years of severe difficulties with the disease, she found – while living in Park City, Utah, where the couple had built a vacation home – a combination of mainstream, alternative, and equestrian therapies that enabled her to lead a lifestyle mostly without limitations.[143] When her husband received a job offer to take over the troubled organization responsible for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to accept it; eager for a new challenge, as well as another chance to prove himself in public life, he did.[142][144][145] On February 11, 1999, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002 hired Romney as their president and CEO.[146]
Photograph of Romney standing with microphone in middle of curling lanes

Romney, as president and CEO of theSalt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics, speaking before a curlingmatch

Before Romney took the position, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue goals.[146] Officials had made plans to scale back the Games to compensate for the fiscal crisis, and there were fears it might be moved away entirely.[147] Additionally, the image of the Games had been damaged by allegations of bribery against top officials including prior committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee forced Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson to resign.[148] Utah power brokers, including Governor Mike Leavitt, searched for someone with a scandal-free reputation to take charge of the Olympics, and chose Romney based on his business and legal expertise as well as his connections to both the LDS Church and the state.[145][149] The appointment faced some initial criticism from non-Mormons, and fears from Mormons, that it represented cronyism or made the Games seem too Mormon-dominated.[38] Romney donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO, and also contributed $1 million to the Olympics.[150][150]
Romney restructured the organization's leadership and policies. He reduced budgets and boosted fundraising, alleviating the concerns of corporate sponsors while recruiting new ones.[142][145] Romney worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by coordinating a $300 million security budget.[144] He oversaw a $1.32 billion total budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers.[146] The federal government provided approximately $400 million[145][151][152] to $600 million[153][154] of that budget, much of it a result of Romney's having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies.[154][155] It was a record level of federal funding for the staging of a U.S. Olympics.[152][155] An additional $1.1 billion of indirect federal funding came to the state in the form of highway and transit projects.[156]
Romney emerged as the local public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, in news stories, on collectible Olympics pinsdepicting Romney wrapped by an American flag, and on buttons carrying phrases like "Hey, Mitt, we love you!"[142][145][157] Robert H. Garff, the chair of the organizing committee, later said "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics,"[142] and that Romney wanted to use the Olympics to propel himself into the national spotlight and a political career.[145][158] Garff believed the initial budget situation was not as bad as Romney portrayed, given there were still three years to reorganize.[145] Utah Senator Bob Bennett said that much of the needed federal money was already in place.[145] An analysis by The Boston Globe later stated that the committee had nearly $1 billion in committed revenues at that time.[145] Olympics critic Steve Pace, who led Utahns for Responsible Public Spending, thought Romney exaggerated the initial fiscal state to lay the groundwork for a well-publicized rescue.[158] Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed.[142] Bullock said: "He tried very hard to build an image of himself as a savior, the great white hope. He was very good at characterizing and castigating people and putting himself on a pedestal."[145]
Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up with a surplus of $100 million.[159] President George W. Bush praised Romney's efforts and 87 percent of Utahns approved of his performance as Olympics head.[23][160] It solidified his reputation as a "turnaround artist",[145][161][162] and Harvard Business School taught a case study based around his actions.[62] U.S. Olympic Committee head William Hybl credited Romney with an extraordinary effort in overcoming a difficult time for the Olympics, culminating in "the greatest Winter Games I have ever seen".[145] Romney wrote a book about his experience titled Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games, published in 2004. The role gave Romney experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to relaunch his political aspirations.[142]

Governor of Massachusetts

2002 gubernatorial campaign

In 2002, plagued by political missteps and personal scandals, the administration of Republican Acting Governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift appeared vulnerable, and many Republicans viewed her as unable to win a general election.[160][163] Prominent party figures – as well as the White House – wanted Romney to run for governor[164][165] and the opportunity appealed to him for reasons including its national visibility.[166] A poll by the Boston Herald showed Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points.[167] On March 19, 2002, Swift announced she would not seek her party's nomination, and hours later Romney declared his candidacy,[167] for which he would face no opposition in the primary.[168] In June 2002, the Massachusetts Democratic Party challenged Romney's eligibility to run for governor, noting that state law required seven years' consecutive residence and that Romney had filed his state tax returns as a Utah resident in 1999 and 2000.[169][170] In response, the bipartisan Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that he had maintained sufficient financial and personal ties to Massachusetts and was, therefore, an eligible candidate.[171]
Romney again ran as a political outsider.[160] He played down his party affiliation,[172] saying he was "not a partisan Republican" but rather a "moderate" with "progressive" views.[173] He stated that he would observe a moratorium on changes to the state's laws on abortion, but reiterated that he would "preserve and protect a woman's right to choose" and that his position was "unequivocal".[135][174] He touted his private sector experience as qualifying him for addressing the state's fiscal problems[168] and stressed his ability to obtain federal funds for the state, offering his Olympics record as evidence.[152][155] He proposed to reorganize the state government while eliminating waste, fraud, and mismanagement.[172][175] The campaign innovatively utilized microtargeting techniques, identifying like-minded groups of voters and reaching them with narrowly tailored messaging.[176]
In an attempt to overcome the image that had damaged him in the 1994 Senate race – that of a wealthy corporate buyout specialist out of touch with the needs of regular people – the campaign staged a series of "work days", in which Romney performed blue-collar jobs such as herding cows and baling hay, unloading a fishing boat, and hauling garbage.[175][177][178] Television ads highlighting the effort, as well as one portraying his family in gushing terms and showing him shirtless,[177] received a poor public response and were a factor in his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, leading in the polls as late as mid-October.[175][178] He responded with ads that accused O'Brien of being a failed watchdog for state pension fund losses in the stock market and that associated her husband, a former lobbyist, with the Enron scandal.[172][178]These were effective in capturing independent voters.[178] O'Brien said that Romney's budget plans were unrealistic; the two also differed on capital punishment and bilingual education, with Romney supporting the former and opposing the latter.[179]
During the election, Romney contributed more than $6 million – a state record at the time – to the nearly $10 million raised for his campaign overall.[180][181] On November 5, 2002, he won the governorship, earning 50 percent of the vote to O'Brien's 45 percent.[182]

Tenure, 2003–07

Mitt Romney resting on a wooden desk, flanked by an American flag, a picture of his wife, a
lamp, and a painting of mountains

Massachusetts State House portrait of Governor Mitt Romney, by artist Richard Whitney, with Ann Romney pictured to the right


The swearing in of Romney as the 70th governor of Massachusetts took place on January 2, 2003.[183] He faced a Massachusetts state legislature with large Democratic majorities in both houses, and had picked his cabinet and advisors based more on managerial abilities than partisan affiliation.[184][185] He declined a governor's salary of $135,000 during his term.[186] Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, he faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year.[172] Unexpected revenue of $1.0–1.3 billion from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in new federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2–1.5 billion.[187][188] Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes,[187] the state achieved surpluses of around $600–700 million during Romney's last two full fiscal years in office, although it began running deficits again after that.[nb 13]

Romney supported raising various fees, including those for drivers' licenses and gun licenses, to raise more than $300 million.[172][187] He increased a special gasoline retailer fee by two cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue.[172][187]Opponents said the reliance on fees sometimes imposed a hardship on those who could least afford them.[187] Romney also closed tax loopholes that brought in another $181 million from businesses over the next two years and over $300 million for his term.[172][193][194] He did so in the face of conservative and corporate critics who viewed these actions as tax increases.[193][194]
The state legislature, with the governor's support, cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns.[195] The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase fees by 63 percent over four years.[172][187] Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget; a heavily Democratic legislature overrode all the vetoes.[196]
The cuts in state spending put added pressure on localities to reduce services or raise property taxes, and the share of town and city revenues coming from property taxes rose from 49 to 53 percent.[172][187] The combined state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased during Romney's governorship.[172] He did propose a reduction in the state income tax rate that the legislature rejected.[197]
Romney sought to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state. This came after Staples founder Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people.[198] Another factor was that the federal government, owing to the rules of Medicaid funding, threatened to cut $385 million in those payments to Massachusetts if the state did not reduce the number of uninsured recipients of health care services.[199][174] Although the idea of universal health insurance had not come to the fore during the campaign, Romney decided that because people without insurance still received expensive health care, the money spent by the state for such care could be better used to subsidize insurance for the poor.[198]
Determined that a new Massachusetts health insurance measure not raise taxes or resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare"proposal at the federal level, Romney formed a team of consultants from diverse political backgrounds to apply those principles. Beginning in late 2004, they devised a set of proposals that were more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax.[185][199][174] In particular, Romney pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level.[20] Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal health coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney,[200] gave the plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate.[199][174] The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.[199][174]
On April 12, 2006, the governor signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, commonly called "Romneycare", which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties, such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.[201] The bill also established means-tested state subsidies for people who lacked adequate employer insurance and whose income was below a threshold, using funds that had covered the health costs of the uninsured.[202][203] He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients.[201][204] The legislature overrode all eight vetoes, but the governor's office said the differences were not essential.[204] The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.[174][nb 14]
At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits.[174][206][207]A November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision required the state to recognize same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health).[208] Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned those marriages but still allowed civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to accomplish the former.[208] In May 2004, in compliance with the court decision, the governor instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, he said no marriage licenses were to be issued to those people not planning to move to Massachusetts.[206][209] In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that it confused voters who opposed both same-sex marriage and civil unions.[206] Instead, he endorsed a ballot initiative led by the Coalition for Marriage and Family (an alliance of socially conservative organizations) that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions.[206] In 2004 and 2006, he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.[210][211]
In 2005, Romney revealed a change of view regarding abortion, moving from the pro-choice positions expressed during his 1994 and 2002 campaigns to a pro-life one in opposition toRoe v. Wade.[174] Romney attributed his conversion to an interaction with Harvard University biologist Douglas Melton, an expert on embryonic stem cell biology, although Melton vehemently disputed Romney's recollection of their conversation.[212] Romney subsequently vetoed a bill on pro-life grounds that expanded access to emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies (the legislature overrode the veto).[213] He also amended his position on embryonic stem cell research itself.[nb 15]
Romney used a bully pulpit approach towards promoting his agenda, staging well-organized media events to appeal directly to the public rather than pushing his proposals in behind-doors sessions with the state legislature.[174] He dealt with a public crisis of confidence in Boston's Big Dig project – that followed a fatal ceiling collapse in 2006 – by wresting control of the project from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.[174] After two years of negotiating the state's participation in the landmark Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that instituted a cap and trade arrangement for power plant emissions in the Northeast, Romney pulled Massachusetts out of the initiative shortly before its signing in December 2005, citing a lack of cost limits for industry.[214]
During 2004, Romney spent considerable effort trying to bolster the state Republican Party, but it failed to gain any seats in the state legislative elections that year.[172][215] Given a prime-time appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, political figures began discussing him as a potential 2008 presidential candidate.[216] Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president,[217] and on December 14, 2005, announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term.[218] As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network;[217] he spent all, or parts of, more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run.[219]
The governor had a 61 percent job approval rating in public polls after his initial fiscal actions in 2003, although his approval rating subsequently declined,[220] driven in part by his frequent out-of-state travel.[220][221] Romney's approval rating stood at 34 percent in November 2006, ranking 48th of the 50 U.S. governors.[222] Dissatisfaction with Romney's administration and the weak condition of the Republican state party were among several factors contributing to Democrat Deval Patrick's 20-point win over Republican Kerry Healey, Romney's Lieutenant Governor, in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.[221][223]
Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor.[224] His term ended January 4, 2007.

2008 presidential campaign

Mitt Romney addressing an audience from atop a stage

Holding an "Ask Mitt Anything" session in Ames, Iowa, in May 2007


Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, in Dearborn, Michigan.[225] Again casting himself as a political outsider,[226] his speech frequently invoked his father and his family, and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point.[225][227]
The campaign emphasized Romney's highly profitable career in the business world and his stewardship of the Olympics.[217][228][nb 16] He also had political experience as a governor, together with a political pedigree courtesy of his father (as well as many biographical parallels with him).[nb 17] Ann Romney, who had become an advocate for those with multiple sclerosis,[234] was in remission and would be an active participant in his campaign,[235] helping to soften his political personality.[236] Media stories referred to the 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) Romney as handsome.[237][238] Moreover, a number of commentators noted that with his square jaw and ample hair graying at the temples, he physically matched one of the common images of what a president should look like.[69][239][240]
Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and serving as governor in one of the nation's most liberal states and having taken positions in opposition to the party's conservative base during that time.[217][228][235] Late during his term as governor, he had shifted positions and emphases to better align with traditional conservatives on social issues.[217][228][235] Skeptics, including some Republicans, charged Romney with opportunism and a lack of core principles.[120][174][241] As a Mormon, he faced suspicion and skepticism by some in the Evangelical portion of the party.[241]
For his campaign, Romney assembled a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters.[228][242] He was little-known nationally, though, and stayed around the 10 percent support range in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007.[217] He proved the most effective fundraiser of any of the Republican candidates and also partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune.[228][243]These resources, combined with the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks.[244] Romney's staff suffered from internal strife; the candidate himself was at times indecisive, often asking for more data before making a decision.[228][245]
During all of his political campaigns, Romney has avoided speaking publicly about Mormon doctrines, referring to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of religious tests for public office.[246] But persistent questions about the role of religion in Romney's life, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based upon an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to the December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech.[247] In the speech Romney declared, "I believe in my Mormon faith and endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs."[11] Romney added that he should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion,[248] and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law."[247] Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said he would be informed by it, stating: "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."[247][248] Academics would later study the role religion had played in the campaign.[nb 18]
The campaign's strategy called for winning the initial two contests – the January 3, 2008, Iowa Republican caucuses and the adjacent-to-his-home-state January 8 New Hampshire primary – and propelling Romney nationally.[251] However, he took second place in both, losing Iowa to a vastly outspent Huckabee who received more than twice the evangelical Christian votes,[252][253] and losing New Hampshire to the resurgent McCain.[252] Huckabee and McCain criticized Romney's image as a flip flopper[252] and this label would stick to Romney through the campaign[228] (one that Romney rejected as unfair and inaccurate, except for his acknowledged change of mind on abortion).[236][254] Romney seemed to approach the campaign as a management consulting exercise, and showed a lack of personal warmth and political feel; journalist Evan Thomas wrote that Romney "came off as a phony, even when he was perfectly sincere."[236][255] The fervor with which Romney adopted his new stances and attitudes contributed to the perception of inauthenticity that hampered the campaign.[62][256] Romney's staff would conclude that competing as a candidate of social conservatism and ideological purity rather than of pragmatic competence had been a mistake.[236]
A win by McCain over Huckabee in South Carolina, and by Romney over McCain in childhood-home Michigan, set up a pivotal battle in the Florida primary.[257][258] Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain attacked Romney regarding Iraq policy and benefited from endorsements from Florida officeholders.[257][258] McCain won a 5 percentage point victory on January 29.[257][258] Although many Republican officials were now lining up behind McCain,[258]Romney persisted through the nationwide Super Tuesday contests on February 5. There he won primaries or caucuses in several states, but McCain won in more and in larger-population ones.[259] Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7.[259]
Altogether, Romney had won 11 primaries and caucuses,[260] receiving about 4.7 million votes[261] and garnering about 280 delegates.[262] He spent $110 million during the campaign, including $45 million of his own money.[263]
Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later,[262] and McCain had Romney on a short list for vice presidential running mate, where his business experience would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses.[264] McCain, behind in the polls, opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer", selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.[265]McCain lost the election to Democratic Senator Barack Obama.

Activity between presidential campaigns

Casual photograph of Mitt and Ann Romney outdoors with wind blowing her hair

Romneys on Mackinac Island at the September 2007 Republican Leadership Conference

Romney supported the Bush administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program in response to the late-2000s financial crisis, later saying that it prevented the U.S. financial system from collapsing.[266][267] During the U.S. automotive industry crisis of 2008–10, he opposed a bailout of the industry in the form of direct government intervention, and argued that a managed bankruptcy of struggling automobile companies should instead be accompanied by federal guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing from the private sector.[268]
Following the 2008 election, Romney laid the groundwork for a likely 2012 presidential campaign by using his Free and Strong America political action committee (PAC) to raise money for other Republican candidates and pay his existing political staff's salaries and consulting fees.[269][270] A network of former staff and supporters around the nation were eager for him to run again.[271] He continued to give speeches and raise funds for Republicans,[272] but fearing overexposure, turned down many potential media appearances.[254]He also spoke before business, educational, and motivational groups.[273] From 2009 to 2011, he served on the board of directors of Marriott International, founded by his namesake J. Willard Marriott.[274] He had previously served on it from 1993 to 2002.[274][nb 19]
In 2009, the Romneys sold their primary residence in Belmont and their ski chalet in Utah, leaving them an estate along Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and an oceanfront home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, California, which they had purchased the year before.[254][277][278] The San Diego home proved beneficial in location and climate for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis of mammary ductal carcinoma in situ and subsequent lumpectomy.[277][279][280] Both it and the New Hampshire location were near some of their grandchildren[277] (who by 2012 numbered eighteen).[281] Romney maintained his voting registration in Massachusetts, however, and bought a smaller condominium in Belmont during 2010.[279][282] In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAOmember Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an airplane flight.[nb 20]
Romney released his book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, in March 2010, and undertook an 18-state book tour to promote the work.[286] In the book, Romney writes of his belief in American exceptionalism,[287] and presents his economic and geopolitical views rather than anecdotes about his personal or political life.[287][288] It debuted atop The New York Times Best Seller list.[289] Romney donated his earnings from the book to charity.[101]
Immediately following the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said the act should be repealed.[290] The antipathy Republicans felt for it created a potential problem for the former governor, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during Romney's term; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare."[290] While acknowledging that his plan was an imperfect work in progress, Romney did not back away from it. He defended the state-level health insurance mandate that underpinned it, calling the bill the right answer to Massachusetts' problems at the time.[290][291][292]
In nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Romney led or placed in the top three with Palin and Huckabee. A January 2010 National Journal survey of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders and a plurality of Democratic insiders predicted Romney would be the party's 2012 nominee.[293] Romney campaigned heavily for Republican candidates in the 2010 midterm elections,[294] raising more money than the other prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates.[295]Beginning in early 2011, Romney presented a more relaxed visual image, including more casual attire.[256][296]

2012 presidential campaign

Photograph of Romney working a lunch counter line, with citizens and press photographers crowding around
Romney making an appearance in Livonia, Michigan, days after his June 2011 formal campaign announcement

On April 11, 2011, Romney announced, via a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire, that he had formed anexploratory committee for a run for the Republican presidential nomination.[297][298] Quinnipiac University political science professor Scott McLean stated, "We all knew that he was going to run. He's really been running for president ever since the day after the 2008 election."[298]
Romney stood to benefit from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president, and thus appeared to be next in line to be chosen.[271][299][300] The early stages of the race found him as the apparent front-runner in a weak field, especially in terms of fundraising prowess and organization.[301][302][303] Perhaps his greatest hurdle in gaining the Republican nomination was party opposition to the Massachusetts health care reform law that he had shepherded five years earlier.[296][298][300] As many potential Republican candidates with star power and fundraising ability decided not to run (includingMike Pence, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and Mitch Daniels), Republican party figures searched for plausible alternatives to Romney.[301][303]
On June 2, 2011, Romney formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized President Obama's handling of it.[304] He said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it – because I have lived it."[300]
Romney raised $56 million during 2011, more than double the amount raised by any of his Republican opponents,[305] and refrained from spending his own money on the campaign.[306] He initially pursued a low-key, low-profile strategy.[307] Michele Bachmannstaged a brief surge in polls, which preceded a poll surge in September 2011 by Rick Perry who had entered the race the month before.[308] Perry and Romney exchanged sharp criticisms of each other during a series of debates among the Republican candidates.[309] The October 2011 decisions of Chris Christie and Sarah Palin not to run effectively settled the field of candidates.[310][311] Perry faded after poor performances in those debates, while Herman Cain's 'long-shot' bid gained popularity until allegations of sexual misconduct derailed it.[312][313]
Romney continued to seek support from a wary Republican electorate; at this point in the race, his poll numbers were relatively flat and at a historically low level for a Republican frontrunner.[310][314][315] After the charges of flip-flopping that marked his 2008 campaign began to accumulate again, Romney declared in November 2011: "I've been as consistent as human beings can be."[316][317][318] In the final month before voting began, Newt Gingrich experienced a significant surge – taking a solid lead in national polls and most of the early caucus and primary states[319] – before settling back into parity or worse with Romney following a barrage of negative ads from Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC.[320]
In the initial contest, the 2012 Iowa caucuses of January 3, election officials announced Romney as ahead with 25 percent of the vote, edging out a late-gaining Rick Santorum by eight votes (an also-strong Ron Paul finished third).[321] Sixteen days later, however, they certified Santorum as the winner by a 34-vote margin.[322] A week after the Iowa caucuses, Romney earned a decisive win in the New Hampshire primary with a total of 39 percent of the vote; Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman third.[323]
In the run-up to the South Carolina Republican primary, Gingrich launched ads criticizing Romney for causing job losses while at Bain Capital, Perry referred to Romney's role there as "vulture capitalism", and Sarah Palin pressed Romney to prove his claim that he created 100,000 jobs during that time.[324][325] Many conservatives rallied in defense of Romney, rejecting what they inferred as criticism of free-market capitalism.[324] During two debates in the state, Romney fumbled questions about releasing his income tax returns, while Gingrich gained support with audience-rousing attacks on the debate moderators.[326][327] Romney's double-digit lead in state polls evaporated; he lost to Gingrich by 13 points in the January 21 primary.[326] Combined with the delayed loss in Iowa, Romney's admitted poor week represented a lost chance to end the race early, and he quickly decided to release two years of his tax returns.[326][328] The race turned to the Florida Republican primary, where in debates, appearances, and advertisements, Romney launched a sustained barrage against Gingrich's past record and associations and current electability.[329][330] Romney enjoyed a large spending advantage from both his campaign and his aligned Super PAC, and after a record-breaking rate of negative ads from both sides, Romney won Florida on January 31, gaining 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent.[331]
Mitt Romney sitting outdoors during daytime, with crowd behind him holding up blue and white "Romney" signs
Giving an interview at a supporters rally inParadise Valley, Arizona
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan seen in medium distance on an outdoor stage, with large crowd around them
With running mate Paul Ryan in Norfolk, Virginia, during the vice presidential selection announcement on August 11, 201


Several caucuses and primaries took place during February, and Santorum won three in a single night early in the month, propelling him into the lead in national and some state polls and positioning him as Romney's chief rival.[332] Days later, Romney told theConservative Political Action Conference that he had been a "severely conservative governor"[333] (while during his term in 2005 he had maintained that his positions were moderate and characterized reports that he was shifting to the right to attract conservative votes a media distortion).[334] Romney won the other five February contests, including a closely fought one in his home state of Michigan at the end of the month.[335][336] In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses of March 6, Romney won six of ten contests, including a narrow victory in Ohio over a vastly outspent Santorum. Although his victories were not enough to end the race, they were enough to establish a two-to-one delegate lead over Santorum.[337] Romney maintained his delegate margin through subsequent contests,[338] and Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10.[339] Following a sweep of five more contests on April 24, the Republican National Committee put its resources to work for Romney as the party's presumptive nominee.[340] Romney clinched a majority of the delegates with a win in the Texas primary on May 29.
Polls have consistently indicated a tight race for the November general election.[341] Negative ads from both sides dominated the campaign, with Obama's proclaiming that Romney shipped jobs overseas while at Bain Capital and kept money in offshore tax havens and Swiss bank accounts.[342] A related issue dealt with Romney's purported responsibility for actions at Bain Capital after taking the Olympics post.[95][97] Romney faced demands from Democrats to release additional years of his tax returns, an action a number of Republicans also felt would be wise; after being adamant that he would not do that, he released summaries of them in late September.[108][343]
In July 2012, Romney visited the United Kingdom, Israel, and Poland, meeting leaders in an effort to raise his credibility as a world statesman.[344] Comments Romney made about the readiness of the 2012 Summer Olympics were perceived as undiplomatic by the British press.[345][346] Israeli Prime Minister (and former BCG colleague) Benjamin Netanyahu, embraced Romney, though some Palestinians criticized him for suggesting that Israel's culture led to their greater economic success.[347]
On August 11, 2012, the Romney campaign announced the selection of Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice-presidential running mate.[348] On August 28, 2012, the2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, officially nominated Romney as their candidate for the presidency.[349] Romney is the first Mormon to become a major-party presidential nominee.[350]
In mid-September, a video surfaced of Romney speaking before a group of supporters in which he stated that 47 percent of the nation pay no income tax, are dependent on the federal government, see themselves as victims, and will support President Obama unconditionally. Romney went on to say: "And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."[351][352][353] After facing criticism about the tone and accuracy of these comments, he at first characterized them as "inelegantly stated", then a couple of weeks later commented: "I said something that's just completely wrong."[354]
The first of three 2012 presidential election debates took place on October 3, in Denver. Media figures and political analysts widely viewed Romney as having delivered a stronger and more focused presentation than did President Obama.[354][355] That initial debate overshadowed Obama's improved presentation in the last two debates later in October, and Romney maintained an edge in the debates overall.[356]

Political positions

In addition to calling for cuts in federal government spending to help reduce the national debt,[357] Romney has proposed measures intended to limit the growth of entitlement programs, such as introducing means testing and gradually raising the eligibility ages for receipt of Social Security and Medicare.[357] He supports substantial increases in military spending and promises to invest more heavily in military weapons programs while increasing the number of active-duty military personnel.[358][359] He was very supportive of the directions taken by the budget proposals of Paul Ryan, although he later proposed his own budget plan which, for example, lowers tax rates within existing brackets instead of adopting Ryan's idea of collapsing six income tax brackets into two.[360][361][362]
Romney pledges to lead an effort to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") and replace it with a system that gives states more control over Medicaidand makes health insurance premiums tax-advantaged for individuals in the same way they are for businesses.[363] He favors repeal of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act and intends to replace them with what he calls a "streamlined, modern regulatory framework".[364][365]
He has also promised to seek income tax law changes that he says would help to lower federal deficits and would stimulate economic growth. These include: reducing individual income tax rates across the board by 20 percent, maintaining the Bush administration-era tax rate of 15 percent on investment income from dividends and capital gains (and eliminating this tax entirely for those with annual incomes less than $200,000), cutting the top tax rate on corporations from 35 to 25 percent, and eliminating the estate tax and theAlternative Minimum Tax.[366][367] He has promised that the loss of government revenue from these tax cuts would be offset by closing loopholes and placing limits on tax deductions and credits available to taxpayers with the highest incomes,[367] but has said that that aspect of the plan cannot be evaluated yet because details would have to be worked out with Congress.[368]
Romney opposes the use of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions to deal with global warming.[317] He has stated that he believes climate change is occurring, but that he does not know how much of it can be linked to human activity.[317] He is a proponent of increased domestic oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), building more nuclear power plants, and reducing the regulatory authority of the Environmental Protection Agency.[369][370] He believes North American energy independence can be achieved by 2020.[371]
Romney labels Russia as America's "number one geopolitical foe",[372] and asserts that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability should be America's "highest national security priority".[373] Romney has stated his strong support for Israel.[374] He plans to formally label China a currency manipulator and take associated counteractions unless that country changes its trade practices.[375] Romney supports the Patriot Act,[376] continued operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and use of enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists.[376] Romney opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions, although he favors domestic partnership legislation that gives certain legal rights to same-sex couples, such as hospital visitation.[377] In 2011, he signed a pledge promising to seek passage of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.[378]
Since 2005, Romney has described himself as "pro-life".[379] In that year, he wrote: "I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother."[380][nb 11][nb 15] During his 1994 campaign for the senate, Romney had said, "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," a stance he reiterated during his 2002 campaign for governor.[135][383] Campaigning for the presidency in 2011, he said he would support pro-life legislation should it come before him as president,[384]such as a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.[385][386] In October 2012, he said that as president, "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda."[383] The following day, his campaign spokeswoman said that "Gov. Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life."[384] While Romney would prefer to see passage of a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion, he does not believe the public would support such an amendment;[387] as an alternative, he has promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would help overturn Roe v. Wade, allowing each state to decide on the legality of abortion.[388]
Romney has said that he would appoint federal judges in the mold of U.S. Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Samuel Alito.[389][390] He has advocated judicial restraint and strict constructionism as judicial philosophies.[390][391]

Awards and honors

Photograph of Romney flanked by two other men at a formal awards occasion
Receiving the 2006 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award on behalf of his state

Romney has received five honorary doctorates: in business from the University of Utah in 1999,[392] in law from Bentley College in 2002,[393] in public administration from Suffolk University Law School in 2004,[394] in public service from Hillsdale College in 2007,[395]and in humanities from Liberty University in 2012.[396]
People magazine included Romney in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002,[397] and in 2004, a foundation that promotes the Olympic Truce gave him its inaugural Truce Ideal Award.[398] The Cranbrook School gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.[18] In 2008, he shared with his wife Ann, the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during the presidential campaign.[399] In 2012, Time included Romney in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[400]









Books

  • Romney, Mitt; Robinson, Timothy (2004). Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89526-084-0.
  • Romney, Mitt (2010). No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-60980-1.

See also

  • List of Presidents of the Olympic Organizing Committee
  • List of Governors of Massachusetts
  • List of United States Republican Party presidential tickets
Portal icon Mitt Romney portal
Portal icon Biography portal
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Portal icon Conservatism portal

  1. ^ Pranks conducted by Romney during his Cranbrook years included sliding down golf courses on large ice cubes, dressing as a police officer and tapping on the car windows of friends who were making out, and staging an elaborate formal dinner on the median of a busy street.[17][19] The golf course escapade apparently got Romney and Ann Davies arrested, or otherwise detained, by the local police.[22][23] In 2012, five former classmates described a 1965 episode wherein Romney, then a senior, took the lead in holding down a younger student while cutting his long, bleached-blond hair with scissors.[18] Romney said that he does not recall the incident, though he acknowledged that he may have participated in some high school "hijinks and pranks" that went too far, and he apologized for any harm that resulted from them.[24][25]
  2. ^ Pranks conducted by Romney during his Stanford years included dressing as a police officer and pretending to arrest people[28] and pre-"Big Game" customs involving the Stanford Axe.[29]
  3. ^ Mitt's great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and two uncles had been missionaries,[31] as had his older brother.[32] He did briefly consider breaking with tradition and not going on a mission[33] (and he had successfully rushed the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity at Stanford, for sophomore year membership).[27] But he did go, and all five of Mitt's sons later served as missionaries as well.[34]
  4. ^ Based on figures from 1971 to 2010, the average Mormon gets only 4–8 baptism converts to the faith per year during a mission.[35] The church succeeds in expanding by having huge numbers of missionaries, so that the small number of conversions from each one add up.[36]
  5. ^ Romney's task was complicated by proselytizing for a religion that prohibits alcohol in a country known for it.[10] He reflected upon this in 2002: "As you can imagine, it's quite an experience to go to Bordeaux and say, 'Give up your wine! I've got a great religion for you!'"[38]
  6. ^ a b On June 16, 1968, Romney and five fellow Mormons were traveling on dangerous roads in southern France.[17][40][41] As they drove through the village of Bernos-Beaulac, a Mercedes that was passing a truck missed a curve and swerved into the opposite lane hitting the Citroën DS Romney was driving in a head-on collision.[17][42]Trapped between the steering wheel and door, the unconscious and seriously injured Romney had to be pried from the car; a French police officer mistakenly wrote Il est mort in his passport.[17][22][41] The wife of the mission president was killed and other passengers were seriously injured as well.[41] George Romney relied on his friendSargent Shriver, the U.S. Ambassador to France, to go to the local hospital and discover that his son had survived.[22] Romney, who was not at fault in the accident,[32][41] had suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm, a concussion, and facial injuries, but recovered quickly without needing surgery.[40][41] The French police say that they have no records of the incident because such records are routinely destroyed after 10 years.[41]
  7. ^ Some sources incorrectly report that Romney graduated BYU as valedictorian. Romney himself has corrected this notion, saying that he was not. While he believes he did have the highest grade point average for his BYU years in the College of Humanities, he did not if his Stanford year was factored in, and he did not among the graduating class university-wide.[54][55]
  8. ^ Romney sat for the bar exam in his home state of Michigan in July 1975, passed it and was admitted to practice law there, but never worked as a lawyer and considered it only in case his business career did not work out.[60]
  9. ^ While at a 1981 family outing at Lake Cochituate in Massachusetts, according to Romney, a ranger from Cochituate State Park told him his motorboat had an insufficiently visible license number and he would face a $50 fine if he took the boat onto the lake. Disagreeing about the license and wanting to continue the outing, Romney took it out anyway, saying he would pay the fine. The angry ranger then arrested him for disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped several days later after Romney threatened to sue the officer and the state for false arrest.[67]
  10. ^ One study of 68 deals that Bain Capital made during Romney's time there found that the firm lost money or broke even on 33 of them.[66] Another study that looked at the eight-year period following 77 deals during Romney's time found that in 17 cases the company went bankrupt or out of business, and in 6 cases Bain Capital lost all its investment. But 10 deals were very successful and represented 70 percent of the total profits.[80]
  11. ^ a b Romney's cited exceptions regarding abortion are in line with those of the LDS Church,[113] which allows it in cases of rape, incest, when the mother's health of the mother is seriously threatened, or when the fetus cannot survive past birth.[66] When Romney was a bishop in the 1980s, there was a case where a woman in his congregation with four children was advised by her doctor to terminate her pregnancy because she had a potentially life-threatening blood clot. Romney strongly advised her not to, but she did anyway.[66][113]
  12. ^ Kennedy spent $10.5 million overall, including a $1.5 million loan to himself.[139] This was the second-most expensive race of the 1994 election cycle, after the Dianne Feinstein–Michael Huffington Senate race in California.[140]
  13. ^ Official state figures for fiscal year 2005 (July 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005) declared a $594.4 million surplus.[172][189] For fiscal 2006, the surplus was $720.9 million.[189]During fiscal 2007, Romney cut $384 million in spending that the legislature wanted; in January 2007, midway through the fiscal year, incoming Governor Deval Patrickrestored that amount,[190] and also declared that the state faced a "looming budget shortfall" of $1 billion for fiscal 2008.[191] Patrick consequently proposed a budget for fiscal 2008 that included $515 million in spending cuts and $295 million in new corporate taxes.[192] As it happened, the state ended fiscal 2007 with a $307.1 million deficit and fiscal 2008 with a $495.2 million deficit.[189]
  14. ^ Upon passage of the law, Romney said "There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover."[199] Within four years, the Massachusetts law had achieved its primary goal of expanding coverage: in 2010, 98% of state residents had coverage, compared to a national average of 83%. Among children and seniors the 2010 coverage rate was even higher, 99.8% and 99.6% respectively. Approximately two-thirds of residents received coverage through employers; one-sixth each received it through Medicare or public plans.[205]
  15. ^ a b Romney has also amended his position on embryonic stem cell research: having once supported it broadly, he is now against therapeutic cloning of embryos for scientific research, insisting that "surplus embryos" from fertility treatments should be used instead.[381][382]
  16. ^ American political opinion periodically looked towards industry for business managers who it was thought could straighten out what was held to be wrong in the nation's capital. The track record of such efforts was at best mixed, with Lee Iacoccadeclining to run, Romney's father George and Steve Forbes failing to get far in the primaries, and Ross Perot staging one of the more successful third-party runs in American history.[229][230]
  17. ^ Biographical parallels between George and Mitt Romney include: Both served as Mormon missionaries in Europe and considered the experiences formative. Both pursued high school sweethearts single-mindedly until the women agreed to marry them several years later, then had families with four or five children. Both had very successful careers in business and became known for turning around failing companies or organizations. Both presided over a stake in the LDS Church. Both achieved their first elected position at age 55, as Republican governor of a Democratic-leaning state. The two bear a close physical resemblance at similar ages and both have been said to "look like a president". Both staged their first presidential run in the year they turned 60. Both were considered suspect by ideological conservatives within the Republican Party.[20][231] Neither protested publicly against the LDS Church policy that did not allow black people in its lay clergy, although the elder Romney hoped the church leadership would revise the policy,[232] and his son has said that he was greatly relieved when the church did so in 1978.[32][233][111] There are also obvious differences in their paths, including that George had a hardscrabble upbringing while Mitt's was affluent, and that Mitt far exceeded George's accomplishments in formal education. Another is that Mitt's personality is more reserved, private, and controlled than his father's was, traits he got from his mother Lenore,[53] and his political personality is also shaped at least as much by Lenore as by George.[52] And while George was willing to defy political trends, Mitt has been much more willing to adapt to them.[20][52][185]
  18. ^ Regarding the role of Romney's religion in the 2008 campaign, one academic study, based upon research conducted throughout the 2008 primaries, showed that a negative perception of Mormonism was widespread during the election, and that perception was often resistant to factual information that would correct mistaken notions about the religion or Romney's relationship to it.[249] The authors concluded that, "For Romney ... religion is the central story."[249] Another study, analyzing a survey conducted during January 2008 (when an African American, a woman, and a Mormon all had realistic chances of becoming the first president from that group), found that voters had internally accepted the notion of black equality, paving the way for Barack Obama's election; had partially established but not fully internalized the notion of gender equality, making Hillary Rodham Clinton's task somewhat more difficult; but had only selectively internalized the notion of religious equality, and in particular not extended it to Mormons, thus making Romney's run significantly more difficult.[250]Those authors concluded that, "for a Mormon candidate, the road to the presidency remains very rough ... The bias against a Mormon candidate is substantial."[250]
  19. ^ During most of Romney's first stint on the Marriott board, he was a member of, and for six years chair of, the board's audit committee.[275] In 1994, during Romney's time as chair, Marriott implemented the Son of BOSS tax shelter, which resulted in the company claiming $71 million in losses. In 2008 and 2009, federal courts ruled this use of the shelter illegal and said those losses never existed. PolitiFact.com calls a 2012 claim that Romney personally approved the shelter as "Half True".[275][276]
  20. ^ After having attended the 2010 Winter Olympics, Romney and wife were on board anAir Canada plane waiting to take off on a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles when he got into a physical altercation with Sky Blu, sitting in front of him, over Sky Blu's seat not being in the upright position. Romney said that Sky Blu became physically violent and that he did not retaliate, while Sky Blu said that Romney gave him a "Vulcan grip" first and that he responded physically to that. Sky Blu was escorted off the aircraft by Canadian police but Romney did not press charges and Sky Blu was released.[283][284][285]

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  373. ^ Mitnik, Joshua (July 29, 2012). "Romney's Israel speech: Iran will be 'highest national security priority'". The Christian Science Monitor.
  374. ^ Simsek, Ayhan (October 30, 2012). "Turkey watching US elections closely".Deutsche Welle.
  375. ^ "Mitt Romney on the Issues". Ontheissues.org. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
  376. ^ a b Lorentzen, Amy (July 20, 2007). "Romney backs interrogation, Patriot Act". USA Today.
  377. ^ Barbaro, Michael (May 9, 2012). "Romney reaffirms opposition to marriage, or civil unions, for gay couples". The New York Times.
  378. ^ Montopoli, Brian (August 4, 2011). "Mitt Romney pledges opposition to gay marriage". CBS News.
  379. ^ Kessler, Glenn (September 21, 2007). "The Fact Checker: Romney and Abortion".The Washington Post.
  380. ^ Romney, Mitt (July 26, 2005). "Why I vetoed contraception bill". The Boston Globe.
  381. ^ Romney, Mitt (March 6, 2005). "The problem with the stem cell bill". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009.
  382. ^ Helman, Scott (February 11, 2007). "Romney's stem cell view may upset the right".The Boston Globe.
  383. ^ a b Kirchgaessner, Stephanie (October 10, 2012). "Romney says abortion law not on his agenda". Financial Times.(subscription required)
  384. ^ a b Mehta, Seema; Barabak, Mark Z. (October 10, 2012). "Romney's abortion remarks bring issue back into focus". Los Angeles Times.
  385. ^ Romney, Mitt (June 18, 2011). "My pro-life pledge". National Review Online.
  386. ^ Bingham, Amy (October 11, 2012). "Mitt Romney the GOP candidate vs. Romney the nominee". ABC News.
  387. ^ Rowland, Darrel (October 11, 2012). "Romney wants states to repeal abortion". The Columbus Dispatch.
  388. ^ Parker, Ashley (October 8, 2011). "Romney tries to reassure socially conservative audience". The New York Times.
  389. ^ Camia, Catalina (October 1, 2012). "Who would Romney appoint to Supreme Court?". USA Today.
  390. ^ a b Romney Weighs in on Top Campaign Issues. Fox News. December 4, 2011. Event occurs at 7:34.
  391. ^ O'Neill, Tyler (July 3, 2012). "Obamacare Ruling Energizes Pro-Life Movement". Fox News.
  392. ^ Egan, Dan (April 9, 1999). "SLOC Boss Romney Will Give U. Commencement Address". The Salt Lake Tribune: p. B3.
  393. ^ "Mitt Romney Calls for Bentley College Graduates to 'Be American Heroes'" (Press release). Bentley College. May 1, 2002.
  394. ^ "Suffolk University to Award Eight Honorary Degrees" (Press release). Suffolk University. May 24, 2004.
  395. ^ "Commencement 2007". Hillsdale College. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  396. ^ Bible, Mitzi (May 12, 2012). "Commencement 2012: Paying tribute to Liberty's heritage, God's blessings". Liberty University.
  397. ^ "Mitt Romney: Politician". People. May 13, 2002.
  398. ^ Pane, Lisa Marie (February 13, 2006). "Romney looks ahead, back in Olympics visit". The Boston Globe. Associated Press.
  399. ^ Roche, Lisa Riley (May 10, 2008). "Romney honored for 'Defense of Religious Liberty'". Deseret News (Salt Lake City).
  400. ^ Bain, Bill (April 18, 2012). "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time.

Bibliography

  • Balz, Dan; Johnson, Haynes (2009). The Battle for America, 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election. New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-02111-6.
  • Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2004) (paperback). The Almanac of American Politics 2004. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-106-1.
  • Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2006). The Almanac of American Politics 2006. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-111-5.
  • Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2008) (paperback). The Almanac of American Politics 2008. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-116-0.
  • Canellos, Peter S. (ed.) and The Team at The Boston Globe (2009). The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-3817-5.
  • Clymer, Adam (1999). Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. New York: Wm. Morrow & Company. ISBN 978-0-688-14285-8.
  • Heilemann, John; Halperin, Mark (2010). Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173363-5.
  • Hersh, Burton (1997). The Shadow President: Ted Kennedy in Opposition. South Royalton, Vermont: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-883642-30-3.
  • Hewitt, Hugh (2007). A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59698-502-5.
  • Kranish, Michael; Helman, Scott (2012). The Real Romney. New York: HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-06-212327-5.
  • Mahoney, Tom (1960). The Story of George Romney: Builder, Salesman, Crusader. New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 236830.
  • Thomas, Evan (2009). "A Long Time Coming": The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-607-5.

Further reading

  • Foster, Craig (2008). A Different God?: Mitt Romney, the Religious Right, and the Mormon Question. Draper, Utah: Greg Kofford Books. ISBN 978-1-58958-117-3.
  • Hines, Phillip (2012). Mitt Romney in His Own Words. New York: Threshold Editions.ISBN 978-1-4516-8780-4.
  • Scott, Ronald B. (2011). Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. ISBN 978-0-7627-7927-7.
  • Turner, Lisa Ray; Field, Kimberly (2007). Mitt Romney: The Man, His Values, and His Vision. Silverton, Idaho: Mapletree Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60065-109-0.

External links

  • MittRomney.com
  • Background and collected news at The Washington Post
  • Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
  • Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
  • Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
  • Appearances on C-SPAN programs
  • Appearances on Charlie Rose
  • Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
  • Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
  • Collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
  • Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
  • Biography at the National Governors Association
  • Campaign contributions at FollowTheMoney.org
  • Mitt Romney at the Open Directory Project




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