What at first appeared to be just another maximum-dollar Mitt Romney fundraiser with a hedge fund manager and a Goldman Sachs executive last night – barely regarded as news these days after so many Romney fundraisers with the Wall Street elite – ended up becoming the backdrop for “major campaign announcement” that the former Massachusetts governor has chosen a running mate.
Just kidding. Rather, progressive advocacy group Americans United for Change officially kicked off its satirical “Romney-Gekko 2012” project with a mock announcement from Governor Romney that he has not only declared himself the inevitable GOP nominee for President but has gone ahead and tapped Gordon Gekko — the avaricious corporate raider in Oliver Stone’s classic Wall Street who coined the phrase “greed is good” — to join the ticket.
The “Romey-Gekko 2012” campaign includes a new website www.RomneyGekko.com, tweets from @RomneyGekko, regular releases of satirical campaign ads — the first of which called “It’s Morning Again On Wall Street,” a reprise of the original Reagan “Morning In America Again” ad circa 1984, with a twist — and a continuing presence of Romney-Gekko campaign ‘supporters’ at Romney’s public events. Watch “It’s Morning Again on Wall Street”:
“Romney-Gekko 2012” is an anti-white washing campaign designed to keep Mitt Romney honest about his days at Bain Capital where he became a millionaire a hundred times over “firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits” – honest about the fact that he could have saved jobs, but looked the other way. Just ask Romney’s old Bain business partner: “I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation. The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.”
It is a campaign sure to indulge the fantasies of Wall Street lobbyists, big bank CEO’s, and hedge fund managers alike who could only dream of such an ideal Republican presidential ticket. One made “made fortunes by bankrupting five profitable businesses that ended up firing thousands of workers” and declared “Corporations are people.” One excused his own cut-throat business dealings by insisting, “I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them.” You know it’s a beautiful partnership in Romney and Gekko when their quotes are practically interchangeable.
Above all, it is campaign to warn the middle-class about the consequences of Romney’s Bush-era, trickle-down economic proposals – proposals to give millionaires and big oil companies even more tax breaks and subsidies that never did and never will create jobs; to let his friends on Wall Street get their hands on seniors’ and veterans’ benefits by privatizing Social Security, Medicare and the VA health system; and to repeal Wall Street reform so the real Gordon Gekkos of the world can go back to the same reckless behavior with the middle-class’ money that wiped out trillions in saving and cost millions of Americans their jobs. With Romney’s proposals written so clearly by and for Wall Street and so clearly at the expense of the middle-class, it’s only appropriate that “Greed Is Good” be the official “Romney-Gekko 2012” campaign slogan.
“Greed Is Good!” Romney-Gekko 2012” campaign signs have already popped up outside recent Romney events featuring the now infamous photo from Romney’s days at Bain Capital putting profits before peoples’ jobs. Apparently, finding places to stuff all those profits became something of a joke to Romney and his cohorts. Those events include a fundraiser literally with “Wall Street financiers” and “billionaires” in New York City, and another max-dollar fundraiser in Philadelphia, and a closed-door speech with the Chamber in Manchester. Visit www.RomneyGekko.com often to see where the campaign will show up uninvited next.