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Streetcar Line
The Big Chill Primary
South Carolina, heard through the grapevine, as voters are about to lose their mind.
With the Republican voters of South Carolina once again playing a leading role in choosing their party’s presidential nominee, it might be helpful to look at the race in terms of the Palmetto State’s cultural and/or pop-cultural touchstones.
The Big Chill: The popular hit movie was filmed in Beaufort, and it offers lots of parallels for the current race. The entire movie is about the aftermath of a suicide — and mass political suicide is what Republican voters will be committing if they select either of their two supremely weak general-election candidates, Willard Mitt Romney or Newton Leroy Gingrich, to be slaughtered by Barack Obama’s $800 million machine. Like Mitt Romney’s entire “do better than my father” political genesis, the genesis of the movie characters’ friendship began in Michigan (university of). What movie critic Dave Kehr wrote about the whole movie could also be applied to the Romney campaign: “The material is gratingly familiar…. There is no place for depth or nuance in this slickly engineered complacency machine.”
Then, of course, there is the casual adultery in the movie — but at least the movie’s adultery doesn’t carry the stench of hypocrisy. (Esquire, on Gingrich and his then-wife Marianne: “He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused. He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values. The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, ‘How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?’ ‘It doesn’t matter what I do,’ he answered. ‘People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.’”)
Finally, the movie has Meg Tilly playing Ron Paul’s role of the squeaky-voiced oddball who doesn’t quite fit into the group. Perfect!
The H.L. Hunley Submarine: This is the perfect match for the Rick Perry campaign: A successful launch and spectacular first impression, followed by a mysterious sinking, never to be seen again. Then again, the Perry effort also reminds one of golfer Mark Calcavecchia’s monumental collapse in the famous Ryder Cup “War by the Shore” in 1991 at Kiawah Island, where he blew a 4-up lead with four holes left. (Announcer: “That might have been the strangest shot by a pro I’ve ever seen.”)
“Mudslinging: The Legacy of South Carolina Pottery”: Gingrich again, with his leftist attacks on Bain Capital. Who know it was a South Carolina arts tradition?
Deliverance: Filmed mostly in South Carolina, this near-cult film took place on waters so dangerous that during the year after its release, 31 people drowned while attempting to paddle the same portion of the Chattooga. Sounds like the South Carolina Republican primary itself, which has been the political grave — after being the last real stand for — a boatload of candidates from John Connally in 1980 (Rick Perry redux?) to Bob Dole, Pat Robertson and Jack Kemp (1988), Pat Buchanan (1996), John McCain (2000), and Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, and (for most purposes) Romney in 2008. Again, Perry’s polling numbers indicate a political drowning here — and Newt Gingrich several times has said his campaign might effectively be over if he doesn’t beat Romney here. Will he squeal like a pig if he loses?
Gamecocks: The feisty fighting birds, the mascot of the University of South Carolina, fight to the death. All the candidates are implicated in this analogy.
Colonel Banastre Tarleton: Key operational leader of the supposedly invincible British fighting forces in the key theatre of South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War — this was where, really, most of the heaviest fighting and most consequential fighting occurred during the war — he acted with regal disdain for his opponents. And, again and again, he lost, especially at the key battle of Cowpens. Will this perhaps be the fate of today’s candidate with all of the establishment advantages, Mitt Romney? We’ll see.
The Swamp Fox of the Revolution: Francis Marion was perhaps the single pluckiest of all the American revolutionary leaders, and certainly did more with less than anyone in the whole war (with the possible exception of George Washington himself). Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot was largely based on Marion’s exploits. Leading a small band of unpaid, poorly provisioned volunteers, the Swamp Fox lived off the land, did massive damage to the British forces, and established a hallmark for honorable guerrilla fighting that still stands as a model today. This year, Rick Santorum — underfunded, never given a chance, living off the land, remaining in the fight despite the odds — is trying to play Francis Marion’s role.
If he succeeds, it will be one of the greatest in a long line of terrific South Carolina stories.
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.19.12 @ 6:22AM
One need not wait for the big cold front to move through Washington tonight. It's already arrived with Quin's poignant but inaccurate sum up of the current situation.
Claiming Mitt Romney is weak and not electable does not bear up to the facts.
Romney is polling well against the other Republican candidates but more importantly he is polling well against Obama and his 800 million dollar machine as Quin puts it.
It will clearly be a race where class warfare plays a big part and if Obama wins, many will lose.
Here's a good sum up of Romney you'll never observe at AMSPEC. It clearly defines the role Bain Capitol and an army of Romneys played in the economy. It's not simply about profits, the article clearly shows how Romney and a thousand like him lead to the boom on the 90's thanks to deregulation and less role by the government.
http://www.american.com/archiv.....te-at-bain
Today, it is widely accepted that the takeovers of the 1980s had a beneficial effect on the corporate sector and that efficiency gains, rather than redistributions from stakeholders to shareholders, explain why they appeared."
In the 1980s, the resilient U.S. economy saved itself from becoming Europe. Bain was part of the rescue.
Arguably, the primary force that set off the 1980s upheaval in U.S. corporate restructuring was the deregulation begun by Jimmy Carter and continued by Ronald Reagan. Airlines, ground transportation, cable and broadcasting, oil and gas, banking and financial services all experienced regulatory rollback. Meanwhile, a competitive, globalized marketplace was rising. Management at some of America's biggest companies, confused by these rapid changes, found themselves sitting on huge piles of unused or poorly deployed cash and assets.
Thousands of Mitt Romneys allied with huge pension funds representing colleges, unions and the like, plus a rising cadre of institutional money managers, to force corporate America to reboot. In the 1980s almost half of major U.S. corporations got takeover offers.
Singling out this or that Bain case study amid the jostling and bumping is pointless. This was a historic and necessary cleansing of the Augean stables of the American economy. It caused a positive revolution in U.S. management, financial analysis, incentives, governance and market-based discipline. It led directly to the 1990s boom years. And it gave the U.S. two decades of breathing room while Europe, with some exceptions, choked.
Jack in Wi.| 1.19.12 @ 6:51AM
More nonsense from Quin Hillyear. Obama=Romney=Gingrich=Santorum=more of the same, more wars by chicken hawk warmongers, more bailouts, more inflation by the Federal Reserve. more loss of civil liberties and destruction of the Constitution for the rest of us. It is Ron Paul or ruin.
cvrgrl| 1.19.12 @ 10:05AM
this article is just stupid, not clever, not prescient, ...just stupid especially in oversimplification as if amer spectator readers a simpletons or sheep looking for a plot/path to follow
dude, get a real idea!
Crassus| 1.19.12 @ 10:28AM
Yada, yada, yada.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:14PM
Well, Jack, you think this country deserves to die. Why should we follow your advice, proud coward.
Go to Teheran and live with your compatriots, fool.
Dai Alanye | 1.19.12 @ 10:14AM
It begins more and more to look as if Bain was a corporate raider rather than a conventional investment firm, at least in some of its dealings. Romney has a pproblem brewing, and one which had better be faced rather than ignored. This aspect of Romney's background is still developing.
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 2:27PM
I doubt the Democrats will be able to exploit it, given that Bain Capital has a history of contributing significantly more to Democrats than to Republicans.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 4:04PM
Boar Hunter,
I don't want you to die, I want Gingrich to die. One way or another he is kaput.
When Matt Drudge speaks, people listen- because they know he can be trusted.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 4:08PM
..who else is there but dRudge? Rush? he is v. talented, but is a mouthpiece for the GOP.
Quartermaster| 1.19.12 @ 5:57PM
Mittens may seem strong in the primaries, but he's got a record the opposition will use to flog him to death. The man *IS* weak. The establishment thought McCain, and Dole before him was strong too, but they both went down to an ignominious, and well deserved, drubbing. The same will happen to the GOP with either Mittens or the Newt. The both have enough baggage to sink a super-tanker.
Kitty| 1.19.12 @ 6:24AM
I can see the "Deliverance" connection, but not in the way you suggest. It's the Establishment doin' it to us all over again. Now let's you just drop them pants.
Drunken Sailor| 1.19.12 @ 10:07AM
Well Obama has certainly made many Americans squeal like pigs.
KennesawJack| 1.19.12 @ 10:31AM
Problem is, DS, a lot of them seem to like it.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 4:06PM
"Now let's you just drop them pants."
'Them panties, too'. Ummm, good clean American violence down South by the riverbank. Gotta love it or leave it.
catherine| 1.20.12 @ 1:46AM
Crass!!
Clint| 1.19.12 @ 6:36AM
Gamecocks And Chickenhawks.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is In South Carolina.
Dai Alanye | 1.19.12 @ 10:19AM
In a contest between chickenhawks and chickens it's wise to bet on the former.
BTW, I'm continuing to search the internet for Clint's combat records. They're more mysterious than Obama's college transcripts.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:19PM
So are his dad's. I've read an operational history of that unit Clint says he lead by the executive officer. The Exec states that the original Colonel was injured early on and that he, a Major, replaced him. The Colonel did NOT liberate the death camps. Of course, if I knew the name of the alleged Colonel Clint is actually referring to, it would be easier to validate.
Hx of the unit here: http://117th-cav.org/History of the 38th.pdf.
Crassus| 1.19.12 @ 10:29AM
Yada, yada, yada.
Boar Hunter| 1.19.12 @ 12:44PM
How are you doing this morning Clint?
How is Ron Paul doing after debate attendee's tried to boo Chicken Little off the stage?
Seems to me he suffered more than a little drop in the polls, lol - what a pathetic joke.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 4:11PM
As long as Clint doesn't like Dr. Strangegingrich, he is good people.
Appleby| 1.19.12 @ 7:15AM
The Big Chill was about the way we turn into our parents, regardless of what we planned. Throughout the movie each person is confronted with his university aged self and the stupid ideas he or she used to hold, and how they had turned out to be exactly that: stupid ideas. The sloppy sentiment that rears its head every so often is ruthlessly crushed down by the William Hurt character, who reminds them that they knew each other for a few years a long time ago, and back then they had nothing to worry about but who won the football game. Each of the characters has made his or her peace with the fact that their parents were right and they were wrong...and Alex's suicide has caused each one of them to face the fact that suicide had crossed his or her mind during those Good Old Days, and that they have decided that life as their parents is better after all. For many of my friends, watching the characters wince as they voiced aloud their university daydreams and realized how totally stupid they sounded when spoken aloud was quite a wake-up call. And Meg Tilley was the little child who innocently said "But the emperor is naked!" while showing them what the next generation had taken from their "revolution". There's a lot in that movie to think about.
My favourite exchange is Mary Kay Place and Jeff Goldblum musing that the after-funeral reception is "they throw you a big party on the one day they know you can't come"; Place sighs that "You'll never get this many people to my funeral," and Goldbloom assures her, "I'll come! I'll bring a date!"
albert constantine jr| 1.19.12 @ 11:42AM
I thought Goldblum's lines about the importance of rationalization and the comparison between it and sex were golden.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 4:13PM
"How are you doing this morning Clint?"
Better than Dr. Strangenewt will be doing next week- he is done for.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 7:50PM
or if not, he will be pulverized at the convention:
"open marriage Newt" a pile of delegates will chant.
"Hey hey Newton G., how many mistresess did you get for thee!"
Anything to get rid of the liar from Marietta.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:22PM
Hmmm...I was a YAFer in College, and wanted to be a high earning MD by the time I was 30...check, and check. I also wanted to marry a nice girl (check) and raise wonderful kids (check and check).
Rebelling against my parents, who were and are Chicago Democratic Libtards, was a perfectly sensical decision. I never liked "The Big Chill."
I look like my Dad, and move like him, but my wife tells me I'm NOTHING like him.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:23PM
The checking comments refers to my dreams in college. I knew I would never be a politician.
Alan Brooks| 1.19.12 @ 7:52PM
Glad you are a doctor.
Indy| 1.19.12 @ 7:31AM
If voters knew about Romney's positioon on the VAT, they will think before voting for him. Why does the media avoid this topic? Why does Santorum fail to bring it up?
POST American| 1.19.12 @ 8:11AM
Our sources inform us over 74%
of ALLLL donations from members of
the armed services are going to Ron Paul.
------TAKE HEED------!
Bob Grant| 1.19.12 @ 8:16AM
Thanks Quin,
I had no idea the Big Chill and Deliverance were filmed in South Carolina.
This primary will only serve to put a 'Chill' on the expectation of a 'Big Deliverance' from one of the candidates.
Romney, nor any other candidate, will close the deal on a nomination.
Cry and Squeal like a pig if you must but this primary will settle nothing. You can't always get what you want.
Bob Grant| 1.19.12 @ 8:18AM
Uh...speaking of squealing like a pig, has Clint posted yet?
Drunken Sailor| 1.19.12 @ 10:08AM
His mom forgot to wake him up
Dick Nome| 1.19.12 @ 10:34AM
Chickenhawk CLint has one up above.
Crassus| 1.19.12 @ 10:32AM
This article is wrong about Deliverance. It was filmed mostly in Rabun County, Georgia. The river in the film was the state line between Georgia and South Carolina. Some of the scenes on the river were filmed on the South Carolina side but the bulk of the film was shot in Georgia.
KennesawJack| 1.19.12 @ 2:00PM
Actually, Deliverance was filmed in both Georgia and South Carolin awith the primary wilderness scenes filmed in the North Georgia mountains.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:24PM
Right, as I remind everyone when they start humming the theme to "Deliverance" when I tell them how much I liked, and like, 'Bama. Every thing except the Summer weather.
bill| 1.19.12 @ 8:50AM
I'm predicting the SC Primary:
Winner: Gingrich
2nd: Romney
3rd: Santorum
4th: Perry
5th: Paul
SC once again will determine the GOP nominee, throwing two New England moderate: Romney and Santorum off the cliff and rewarding Gingrich with a crucial victory.
Romney's lead in FL will collapse, followed by the SC Primary, while Gingrich will continue to surge, and eventually beat Romney in Sunshine state. Romney's momentum in IA and NH will evaporate and Gingrich will be the "inevitable" nominee.
Go South! Go Dixie! Go sons of liberty!
Claypoole| 1.19.12 @ 10:16AM
I think Newt Gingrich would be a good president, and I would be happy to vote for him in both the primary and the general, but then, I am a committed conservative. The MSM will concentrate on all the other voters in their drive to destroy Newt. Think Herman Cain treatment multiplied over and over, and remember what the media did to a thoroughly moral Dan Quayle.
Santorum, anyone? Conservative, but without the personal baggage.
bill| 1.19.12 @ 10:40AM
Claypoole, I agree with you on Gingrich, but Santorum voted against "Right-to-Work" bill, showing his "true color" of being a "big government Union Thugs PA Moderate RINO." Remember, SC is a "Right-to-Work" state, and Santorum has no chance in SC.
Claypoole| 1.19.12 @ 12:16PM
I am ashamed to say that, even though I live in PA, I didn't know until just recently that Santorum had voted against Right-to-Work. Definitely a strike against him. I guess I'm just searching for the Reagan candidate, the one most conservative who can win, and I fear the media will make absolute hash of Newt.
bill| 1.19.12 @ 1:34PM
Hello, Claypole, Santorum touted his stance on "Right-to-Work" law, saying that "PA is not a right-to-work state, and so I voted against it." He's a RINO and a "dead man walking" in SC, which is a "Right-to-Work" state. He also refused to fix Social Security and Medicare in the Monday night debate.
He's showing his true color.
KennesawJack| 1.19.12 @ 2:06PM
Bill, I listened to Gov. Haley's State of the State address on C-Span and was wondering why she spent so much time ripping (eloquently!) unions and the NLRB while praising Boeing. Now I understand. She was laying the lumber to Santorum without using his name. Brilliant!
bill| 1.19.12 @ 2:41PM
Santorum, in the Monday night debate, shamelessly admitted that he lobbied for labor unions while he was in the Senate. No wonder why he lost by 18 points!
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 2:29PM
Scratch Perry, who has withdrawn and given both of his votes to Gingrich.
POST American| 1.19.12 @ 8:56AM
------------------OVER 74%!
and AGAIN about that most neccessary
RETRO-active IMPEACHMENT of our
past 4 CFR front op administrations.
Bush Sr./ the Clintons/ Bush Jr and the current
'fave' -----Bar-Rockefeller H. Obama.
FilmSC| 1.19.12 @ 9:02AM
Here are some more films that were made in SC. Curious as to what other parallels might be found in these:
Sleeping with the Enemy
Reap the Wild Wind
Swamp Thing
The Abyss
Forces of Nature
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
The Strangers
Rules of Engagement
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Something to Talk About
Bob Grant| 1.19.12 @ 9:18AM
They all went straight to video?
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:26PM
Bob: Die Hard 45 would never go straight to video. It's a great Conservative series.
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 9:25AM
You left out "The Great Santini".
albert constantine jr| 1.19.12 @ 11:45AM
I was thinking of that as well (with Robert Duvall singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic over his family singing Dixie), but I also thought at least one version of Cape Fear was filmed there, as well.
Seek| 1.19.12 @ 12:49PM
Weren't "The Prince of Tides" and "The Lords of Discipline" filmed in South Carolina, too? Like "The Great Santini," they were based on a novel by Pat Conroy.
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 9:18AM
My wife, whose family came from South Carolina, likes to describe it as "too small for a country, and too large for an insane asylum".
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 9:24AM
"And, again and again, he lost, especially at the key battle of Cowpens."
Oh, weren't paying attention during those lectures on the Southern Campaign, were you, Mr. Hillyer? Tarleton lost precisely one battle--Cowpens. Granted, he got a hell of a lick in' from Daniel Morgan, the Old Wagoneer. But, other than Kings Mountain, Cowpens was the only battle lost by the British in the Carolina Campaign.
And that is the entire point: The British won every battle, but lost the war. The American commander, General Nathaniel Greene (one of our home-grown military geniuses) described his strategy thus: "We fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again". Every British victory cost Cornwallis men he could not replace, yet he could not destroy Greene. Gradually, he was worn down to the point that he left the Carolinas altogether for the most hospitable clime of Virginia, where he entrenched himself in a quaint little place called Yorktown.
Occam's Tool| 1.19.12 @ 7:28PM
Right---a pyrrhic victory.
VonMisesJr| 1.19.12 @ 9:46AM
Mr. Hillyer seems too pessimistic and underestimates South Carolina. This state is not the same as when they had Antebellum plantations on the outskirts of Charleston. But Obama is trying to turn the entire country into the Antebellum south, with DC being the "Massa."
The coast of South Carolina is laden with condos filled with "half backs." These are the Northerners that moved to Florida, disliked the heat and humidity and moved "half way back." Myrtle Beach is a huge retirement destination.
This great country had freedom and is now staring slavery to a central government right in the eye. South Carolina has changed since succession. And so has the attitude of free men across the nation in the last few years.
Bill| 1.19.12 @ 10:13AM
You forgot to mention the Citadel and the movie The Lords of Discipline. Maybe they don't fit the narrative.
David| 1.19.12 @ 10:25AM
Well, it appears that Santorum got screwed about 2 weeks ago now that we know he ACTUALLY WON in Iowa by 34 votes. Imagine the mojo he would have come out of Iowa with after being in 4th place a couple of weeks earlier. I guess when he brings it up in the debate tonight, as he certainly should and has every right to do, he will be called a whiner by some of you morons.
If Romney were any kind of man, he should bring it up at the debate and congratulate Santorum for his win.
It should be interesting tonight.
Stuart Koehl| 1.19.12 @ 2:30PM
Thirty-four votes! An absolute landslide!
Oldefarte| 1.19.12 @ 10:41AM
'...... Strongest case against Romney a few sheets short of a ream by Ann Coulter Posted 01/18/2012 ET Updated 01/18/2012 ET
Mitt Romney has spent more than 20 years in private enterprise, making thousands of business decisions affecting hundreds of companies that led to more than 100,000 new jobs and billions of dollars for employees and investors. So you can see why the left despises him.
Among Romney's thousands of business decisions, the one I gather his opponents consider his absolute worst was the decision to close a paper plant in Marion, Ind. Which wasn't his decision at all.
It was labor trouble at the Marion plant of a Bain-acquired company, Ampad, that formed the basis of Teddy Kennedy's desperate 11th-hour attack on Romney in their 1994 Senate competition. Plant worker Randy Johnson was featured in Kennedy campaign commercials against Romney and disgruntled workers were lavished with Dickensian lachrymosity in The Boston Globe.
In the current presidential campaign, Democrats -- and some Republicans -- have returned to Ampad and the Marion plant as their case in chief against Romney.
The "King of Bain" movie that a pro-Newt Gingrich super-pac just bought with money donated by a gambling magnate cites only one company closed by Bain when Romney was even there.
Guess which one? That's right: Ampad.
The Democratic National Committee has retained Johnson to go on tour in order to more fulsomely describe the horrors perpetrated by Bain Capital on workers at that plant. As salt-of-the-earth Johnson explains, he lost his job at Ampad because Romney "didn't care about the worker."
It is beyond journalistic malpractice for media outlets showcasing the bitter and lying Johnson to neglect to mention that he was the union president who led the strike that forced Ampad to close the plant.
And yet The New York Times, MSNBC and others who have publicized Johnson's sob story regularly refuse to convey that crucial fact. This would be as if a judge excluded the fact that the defense's principal witness is the defendant's mother.
By 1994, the unionized Marion plant was becoming a losing operation to every company that owned it. It was a paper plant, and in the early 1990s, the paper business was beginning to go the way of the buggy whip, as the world became computerized.
(Randy Johnson suffered? Paper magnate Peter Brandt nearly lost Stephanie Seymour over the collapse of the paper market.)
Bain Capital specialized in rescuing troubled companies, so in 1992, it bought the faltering paper-based office products business, Ampad, from the Mead paper company. Far from shutting down Ampad, Bain started buying up more firms in the industry to add to Ampad's portfolio, hoping to create efficiencies and synergies.
In July 1994, Bain-controlled Ampad bought Smith-Corona's struggling paper business -- home to the famed Marion plant.
(Despite shedding its paper business, Smith-Corona went bankrupt the next year. Nobody uses typewriters anymore. Ironically, a century earlier, people said Smith-Corona typewriters would never replace the pen. They probably railed against Smith-Corona as "vulture capitalists" destroying the pen industry.)
Seeking to succeed where Smith-Corona had failed, Bain's Ampad sought to renegotiate a suicide pact-union contract at the Marion plant. But instead of renegotiating, union president Randy Johnson thought it would be a great idea to immediately go on strike.
As long as the nation is still in the fifth stage of grief over Steve Jobs' death, with gushing tributes to his contributions to our wonderful new world of computerized books, letters, memos, newspapers, CDs and classified ads, ask yourselves: Would the mid-1990s have been a good time for workers in an industry made vulnerable by the new, paperless information age to stage a long, acrimonious strike?
Union president Randy Johnson thought it was. The Democrats (and some Republicans) apparently do, too.
Romney wasn't even at Bain during Ampad's acquisition of the Smith-Corona business, much less for the strike at the Marion plant. He was on a leave of absence from Bain to run against Sen. Ted Kennedy. Nonetheless, a dozen workers fired from Ampad's Marion plant showed up in Massachusetts to bird-dog Romney in the final months of his campaign.
It worked. Romney's lead disappeared and, after celebrating with a few cocktails, Kennedy returned to the Senate to continue wrecking the country.
About six months later, Ampad closed the Marion plant for good. As Ampad's president, Charles Hanson, explained at the time, the company had "sustained severe economic damage as a result of our inability to manufacture products at our Marion plant." Apparently, the only thing this ruthless capitalist lackey cared about was that the factory actually produce product!
In any event, it's highly unlikely that Bain would have anything to do with a day-to-day management decision to close a plant, anyway.
Bain led Ampad to thrive over the next few years, buying up more companies in 1995, hiring more workers and making investors nearly $100 million. By 1996, Ampad was being described in Chief Executive magazine as "a stronger, profitable competitor in a consolidating -- and reviving -- domestic industry."
Alas, people kept using those damn computers and shopping for discount paper at Staples and similar stores, and in 1999, Ampad had to file for bankruptcy protection.
Contrary to every single news report on Bain's involvement with Ampad, Bain did not drive the company to bankruptcy by looting it. To the contrary, Bain built up the company, added other companies to it, turned it into a "profitable competitor" that paid handsome dividends for a few years. (And by the way, the company would have gone bankrupt a lot sooner if it hadn't closed down the non-producing Marion plant.)
But in the end, that wasn't enough.
If years of furious acquisition, followed by bankruptcy nearly a decade later had been Bain's secret plan all along, Bain would be the most ham-fisted looter in history.
Politicians' morbid fear of technological advances in the free market has real-world consequences. You will recall that the mainstream media-adored FBI agent Colleen Rowley's main indictment of the bureau after 9/11 was that the FBI had really old computers, preventing it from anticipating the greatest terrorist attack in world history.
In response to Rowley's charges, for example, the Times' Maureen Dowd denounced federal law enforcement agencies for being "antiquated," "inept" and "bloated." (She also said: "I want to see some agents lose their jobs." Maureen Dowd: Inadvertent Romney Supporter.)
Of course, if the Democrats, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were running things, the FBI would still be using paper and pens -- maybe quill pens -- all in order to save Randy Johnson's union job! Instead of a Xerox machine, they'd have a monk in the back room creating copies of documents by hand so as not to be accused of "vulture capitalism" for eliminating the monk's job.
I don't know how Mitt Romney is supposed to explain free market capitalism to career politicians, much less describe the intricacies of a thousand business decisions in two minutes during a debate.
But we know that Bain's acquisition of Ampad is the left's best shot against Romney's business career. We may presume they don't have anything better, or we'd be hearing about it.
The anti-Romney hysterics don't get to come back later with another company allegedly looted by Bain that I'll have to spend another week researching. Henceforth, I shall refer you back to the Ampad example -- their smoking gun -- which, as we have seen, is not even a water pistol.....'
cvrgrl| 1.19.12 @ 10:48AM
thx for ann coulter excerpt, interesting...
irish19| 1.19.12 @ 11:29AM
To see the term "Dickensian lachrymosity" made it worth reading all by itself.
David| 1.19.12 @ 11:39AM
Oldefart, Ann Coulter has been singing Romney's praises for 4 years. I don't understand it.
emilio lizardo, PhD| 1.19.12 @ 11:51AM
truly inexplicable- you'd expect a mossback like Ann to back Perry or Santorum. The right's other galmour gal , v. dentata, and poor man's Ann Coulter,Laura Ingraham I believe is in the tank for Newt. I am sure he'd hit that
Oldefarte| 1.19.12 @ 2:12PM
Did'n post it to highlight her praises of Romney, only to instead counter this asinine targeting of capitalism by even some so called Republicans [no doubt in their prostitudinal quest for the nomination]. As the Trumpmeister recently stated, they all need to BACK OFF their usage of capitalism as a weapon of politics!!!!!!!
Crassus| 1.19.12 @ 5:05PM
Not really, David. Just a few short months ago, Coulter stated in one of her columns that Romney was sure to be defeated if he was to be the Republican nominee. It was only after Chris Christie (her first choice) made it clear that he wouldn't be entering the race that she turned into a full-fledged Mittbot.
ayrnieu| 1.20.12 @ 3:48AM
"... well, if it's down to this, we'll just have to make it work."
Makes sense to me.
David| 1.19.12 @ 11:40AM
Perry dropped out and endorsed Gingrich. What does that say about Perry's judgment.
I hope Perry's supporters slap him in the face and get behind Santorum.
bill| 1.19.12 @ 12:12PM
Hello, my good Christian friends in SC, please help elect Newt Gingrich. SC is the land of liberty, the first confederate state revolted against tyranny and fought to the last minute. SC never surrender to tyranny because South Carolinians are great Americans and true patriot.
Who Knows?| 1.19.12 @ 12:24PM
"The material is gratingly familiar…. There is no place for depth or nuance in this slickly engineered complacency machine."
That’s America!
David| 1.19.12 @ 1:02PM
Let's not forget who Pelosi bench-sitting Gingrich has supported in the past. If you idiots won't give Santorum a pass for Arlen Specter (although thoroughly explained), then you can't give Gingrich a pass either.
Here it goes: Do you remember the House races in NY-23 and MD-01?
Newt endorsed Scozzafava and that aligns him with Markos Moulitsas who declared Dede the most liberal candidate in the race.
That aligns Newt with ACORN, which has twice endorsed Dede.
That aligns Newt with Planned Parenthood and NARAL, active supporters of Dede.
That aligns Newt with the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and a host of other left wing interest groups including the gay marriage lobby.
Newt Gingrich stands athwart history and pees on the legacy of 1994, where it is no longer about principles, ideas, ideals, and integrity, but the raw acquisition of power for the sake of power. He aligns with a candidate to the left of the Democrat.
The GOP will not take back power until it repents of its sins that caused it to lose power. And chief among those sins was the abandonment of principle for the sake of power. But when a political party stands for nothing, it fails to stand.
At least we can thank Newt today for declaring himself out of the 2012 race. OR, SHOULD HE STAY IN, CONSERVATIVES AT LEAST NO LONGER HAVE TO FEEL UNDER ANY OBLIGATION TO STICK WITH HIM SINCE HE MADE CLEAR IN NY-23 AND IN MD-01 THAT HE FELT UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO STICK WITH CONSERVATIVES!!!
David| 1.19.12 @ 1:27PM
Oh yea, and remember when Dede lost the primary race, she turned around and endorsed the democrat in the general election.
That is all you need to know about Newt!!! He IS the establishment!!!
bill| 1.19.12 @ 1:41PM
Santorum endorsed Arlene Specter, who cast the deciding vote in passing ObamaCare.
Speaker Gingrich's records:
-Orchestrated the 1994 GOP Revolution
-Balanced the budget 4 straight years
-Reformed the welfare system
-Passed the Crime Bill
-Impeached Bill "Serial Rapist" Clinton
Gingrich is not perfect, but has southern heritage and conservative credentials. He is a "sharp" debater and can shred Obama in the debate.
Matthew Tomarchio| 1.19.12 @ 2:14PM
How much time did you waste writing this idiotic article. Write something people want to read, not something you want to read.
Tom| 1.19.12 @ 2:27PM
Let it be about ideology in 2016. In 2012 it's all about do we want four more of the Prevaricator? So he's got an 800 million war chest? Once we get a nominee the cash will start pouring in. I see 1980 all over again.
bill| 1.19.12 @ 2:42PM
Obama is a "son of whore", because his mother never get married.
Osamas Pajamas| 1.19.12 @ 4:38PM
(Esquire, on Gingrich and his then-wife Marianne: "He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused. He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values. The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, 'How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?' 'It doesn't matter what I do,' he answered. 'People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live.'")
==================================
Is there any evidence that Newt ever said any such thing? Or is this just some more "He said, she said," from an embittered ex-wife?
RYAN / RUBIO 2012!
Indigo Glow| 1.19.12 @ 4:57PM
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Romney is a bad candidate. Name the Republican who can beat Romney and still pass your Purity Control. Waiting. Still waiting. Crickets. This ain't 1980, and there ain't no more Reagans out there.
rhortus| 1.19.12 @ 6:21PM
Santorum is just another "has been". Just because he is pro-life doesn't give him the credentials of a genuine Conservative, someone who will work to cut back government power to a constitutional level. Ron Paul is the only one.
darrell mclemore| 1.19.12 @ 6:44PM
The way I see it is that obama can have all the money in the world to put out ad after ad, if the people don't believe a word he says then it will do no good. But what he will do in those ads is tells us about the hope for the future and that all he needs is a little more time to make the hope come true. In other words he will kep us thinking that something good is going to come from him and to just wait for him when in fact we could have done for ourselves ten times over. No thanks I do not need your your regressive change.
darrell mclemore| 1.19.12 @ 6:49PM
Sorry wrong story lol
POST American| 1.19.12 @ 8:43PM
---------------------FINAL WORD------------------------
OVER 74% of all of donations made by
serving military is going to ----RON PAUL.
--------------WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY?------------
Leveut| 1.19.12 @ 9:27PM
Meg Tilly. Major babe.