Mitt Romney’s constitutional amendment would bar Paul Ryan from the presidency LOL!

[maddezmom]

Three years ago, Mitt Romney proposed a constitutional amendment that would say “the president has to spend three years working in business before he becomes president of the United States. Then he or she would understand that the policies they are putting into place have to encourage small business to grow.”

As Andrew Kaczsynski notes, that provision would disqualify Paul Ryan, who has spent his life working for the government, first as a congressional staffer and then as a congressman.

To be clear about the point here, I think this reflects how dumb Romney’s proposed constitutional amendment is, not Ryan’s fitness for the presidency. It also reflects Romney’s tendency to take positions strategically without carefully considering their long-term impact. When he made that comment, was it really so difficult for him to imagine naming a vice president without business experience? That would, for instance, disqualify career military men, like Gen. David Petraeus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/13/mitt-romneys-constitutional-amendment-would-bar-paul-ryan-from-the-presidency/

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Well

there goes another line of attack on President Obama from him.

[arcane1]

2. How stupid. Try making them spend three years on minimum wage instead!!

Silly Romney...

[nichomachus]

4. +1

Yes, make them spend three year working on their feet for nine hours a day and minimum wage -- with no benefits.

[dsteve01]

27. well said

[K8-EEE]

14. +1

[evilhime]

28. The best idea

I have heard this season . . . yes let them live on minimum wage with whatever that allows them to afford re health care, food, housing, etc. Oh man, I would love to see that amendment!!!

[TwilightGardener]

3. Just the notion of it is stupid--why is business experience that important?

Why not academic experience? Legal experience? Medical? Engineering? I guess I'm in the minority that can't understand WTF is so magical about selling shit and accounting for it.

[nichomachus]

5. It's because

people like Romney made a lot of money and they think they're fucking geniuses.

I once worked for a Fortune 500 company that was doing very well. The founder had invented a product that the market needed at the time and he made a ton of money and built a big company. Made a few other products that hit the market at just the right time. He thought he was a genius.

Their top salesman lucked into selling a much-needed product with no competition in a market segment that dearly needed what he was selling. Basically, he was an order-taker -- sort of like the guy who's at the ice cream stand at the beach on a hot day.

Anyway, genius founder thought that top salesman was a genius too and named him CEO. The company went from Fortune 500 to out of business.

[reformist2]

9. Yep. A lot of talented people work hard at their business, but few succeed.

[bulloney]

19. It's because people like Romney made a lot of money and they think they're fucking geniuses.

I agree with your assessment of the prevailing mindset in this country, nicomachus.

How hard is it being wealthy when you were already born that way?

[nichomachus]

20. The easiest way to become a millionaire

Is to make sure you're born to billionaires

[ANOIS]

16. And also--

What about Education? Clergy? the Arts? Literary careers? The Service Industry?

It goes on & on.

[reformist2]

6. GOP will never understand that the government is not supposed to be run like a business!

[RedStateLiberal]

12. +1

I wish they'd try to explain how being only interested in making profit has anything to do with helping form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity as outlined in the Constitution.

I guess they think balancing the budget is the only concern they should have. It's much more complicated than that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. Which only shows that Romney is completely unsuited to being President

because he doesn't seem to understand how government should work. In most liberal democracies, politics is a profession; one goes to university, takes a degree in history and economics or political science, joins the debating team, and so on, to learn the foundations and principles of political thought on the one hand and the skills of persuasive argument and presentation on the other. Then one goes to work as a parliamentary aide or staffer and if selected by the party eventually may stand at election for a vacant seat. In most advanced liberal democracies, having elected representatives who actually understand the theory of how governments are supposed to work, of economics, of law, and so on is considered a good thing; it's only in the US, it seems, where people have the frankly crack-brained notion that a businessman will make a better Senator or President than a constitutional law professor or economist.

[K8-EEE]

8. Yeah LOL isn't Ryan a "career politician" with "no executive experience?"

God they are so full of shit, their dumbass rhetoric is going to come back at them big time and watch them DROWN explaining this stuff, KARMA'S A BITCH....ROFLMAO!

[FSogol]

10. New slogan? The Romney/Ryan Plan: Not very well thought out.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. Was Willard by any chance drunk when he proposed this? (nt)

[HopeHoops]

13. If we amend the constitution again, it should be to define a PERSON as an actual PERSON.

[Scuba]

15. Stupid, privileged, rich kid.

[DesertRat]

17. That is too funny! nt

[Marr]

18. As usual, Romney would write the law to service his very specific clique.

[bulloney]

21. Let's see, who were the last 3 presidents who campaigned on their business leadership experience?

Bush the Lesser
Herbert Hoover
Calvin Coolidge

Architects of the two worst depressions of the past century. How did that work for us?

[Kalidurga]

22. How many businesses go under in a year?

As opposed to countries?

[yardwork]

23. As Commander in Chief, shouldn't the president be required to have active duty military experience?

Does this mean that we can retroactively revoke all the presidents who never served? Let's start with Nixon, moving on through Reagan and both Bushes...

[RevStPatrick]

29. Nixon and H.W. Bush were both in the Navy during WWII...

But your point is well taken.

[yardwork]

30. That's right. I knew that about Poppy. He ditched a plane.

I didn't know that Tricky Dick actually served. My bad. Thanks for understanding my point. Next time I'll fact check first.

[RevStPatrick]

32. No worries.

Actually, Reagan served as well.
In the propaganda unit.

Clinton and Obama never served.
I certainly don't hold it against them...

[yardwork]

34. I knew that about Reagan but I don't think it counts.

Maybe that's not fair.

Right, we don't hold it against Clinton and Obama because we aren't the ones going around saying ridiculous things like Romney does.

[unionthug]

24. Romney's style

He doesn't care. He just say's things to make an impression. I doesn't have to make sense.

[mainstreetonce]

25. Doesn't Ryan's time as the Oscar Meyer Weiner count?

It should

[MADem]

26. Driving the weinermobile doesn't count, eh? nt

[GoCubsGo]

31. I propose a constitutional amendment.

It will ban any blithering idiot, who cannot comprehend that there is far more to running the government than catering to small businesses (or business, in general), from becoming President of the United States. And, it will ban any blithering idiot who believes that the government should be run as a business, and who does not understand why it should not be. run as a business.

[gollygee]

33. Sounded like a good idea to him when it would bar Obama

Not so good when it would bar Ryan.

It was just an anti-Obama thing. He would have tried to ban people with the initials B.H.O. if he'd thought of it.