Extremely sound reasoning, followed by an absolutely insane conclusion.
Inferring from “Ideologically, the Republican establishment doesn’t appreciate the difference between being pro-market and being pro-business” to “Romney is eminently qualified to make the pro-market case” makes about as much sense as saying “Every time I eat a polka-dot mushroom I get sick. Therefore, this giant polka-dot mushroom over here is eminently qualified to cure me.”
“Ergo, presto!” as Benjamin Tucker would say.
Roderick, I don’t think there was a direct inference; there were at least these other points that were interjected between the two contrasted statements-
“Yet the Republicans’ presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is not a member of the GOP establishment…
Second, Romney’s experience at Bain Capital makes him potentially more attuned to the market’s needs than to the interests of large corporations. His work involved investing in start-ups and established companies to help them grow. So he should know first-hand the obstacles that ordinary businesspeople face in their daily work, and he should understand that many of these obstacles stem from large companies’ political power. Third, his wealth puts him beyond the need to cater to big corporations for a future job or donations to his presidential library.”
While I don’t find any of these points to be plausible, the writer certainly did and thus the logical gap between those statements shouldn’t be as perilous as you make it.
Yes, there were intermediate premises. But they struck me as amounting to “Let’s pretend this giant polka-dot mushroom is different from the others, despite the squirrel corpses clustered around it with bits of it in their mouths.”
Came across this Nation piece that discusses some of Bain’s cozying up with government.
Somebody should do an in-depth analysis of that firm’s portfolio to see just how cozy it all is. They should also ask Romney how he feels about loosening up licensing regulations for financial agents. I predict an answer along the lines of “Well, of course we need some government regulations in some circumstances…Such as in my line of business, for instance.”
I love it when these Republican jackals try to portray themselves as free market advocates.
Makes me LAUGH.
Heartily.
And of course, let’s not forget Romney was the pol who birthed “Obamacare”!
Very free market that, eh, guv’nah???
Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh they are pros at using the language of Ron Paulian libertarianism to defend corporate dominance of our country’s economic trade.
Mitt Romney and Rush Limbaugh are pros at using the language of libertarianism to defend corporate dominance of our country’s economic trade.