Susan Eisenhower's take on Romney's Military Spending Plan

 “God Help This Country…”: Defense Strategy & Romney’s Military Spending Plan

October 9, 2012

tags: 2012 Election, Defense Spending, Leadership

by Susan Eisenhower

 

Mitt Romney won’t release most of his tax returns. Nor will he give voters specifics on how he plans to make his tax cutting plan “revenue neutral.” But when it comes to national defense he has offered voters astonishing specificity. In a policy memo released by the Romney campaign on July 24, the former Massachusetts Governor committed himself—during his first 100 days in office—to “Reverse Obama-era defense spending cuts with the goal of setting a core defense spending floor of 4% of GDP…[and]  put our Navy on the path to increase its shipbuilding rate from nine per year to approximately fifteen per year…[and] maintain a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers.”   Romney spoke on the subject again on Monday at the Virginia Military Institute.

Where is Dwight Eisenhower when we need him?

Read it at Susan Eisenhower's Newletter:
http://susaneisenhower.com/2012/10/09/god-help-this-country-defense-strategy-romneys-military-spending-plan/

UK: America's recovery

PJ:  Other countries affected by the economic collapse inspired by America's banking excesses are faltering, some have even fallen into double-dip recessions.   Aggressive austerity measures by many of these countries may be to blame while the more balanced approach of both stimulus and debt reduction may have saved the world's largest economy from the same fate. 

The Economist

Bad, repeat good

The recovery is weak, but it may be just enough for the president

Bright spots stand out amid the gloom. There are nearly 900,000 more jobs in professional services than when Mr Obama arrived, and over 1m more jobs in health care. Voters in Ohio and Michigan may have noticed that there are 43,000 more Americans making cars than in early 2009. Democrats eagerly claimed credit for this performance at their own political convention, praising the president’s handling of the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors.
Michigan, long a byword for economic distress, is one of 17 states to have seen net job growth since Mr Obama’s swearing-in. Oil-rich states like Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are among the others, alongside north-eastern states buoyed up by a resilient “knowledge economy”. Housing-bubble states like California and Florida have done worst during Mr Obama’s tenure, but even there a reversal of fortune may be under way. California (never likely to leave the Democratic column) gained 365,000 new jobs in the year to July, the best performance of any state.

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21562971

UK: So long neighbor

The Economist

The decline of an American institution

But one trend in the pattern of American social life is curious: Americans have never been less likely to be friends with their neighbours than before. In 1974, 44% of respondents said that they had spent a social evening with neighbours more than once a month. By 2008, that number had dropped to a tick over 30%. Over the course of the study’s existence, the number has been dropping consistently.
The effect is not quite uniform. The likelihood of socialising with neighbours more than once a month declines with age but levels off among the middle-aged before a brief fillip among the elderly. By way of contrast, there have been steady increases in the number of people who socialise with friends (43%) or relatives (60%) more than once a month. Moreover, it is highly dependent on location. People in rural areas are much more likely to spend time with their neighbours than those in urban areas. Residents of suburbs exhibit the lowest level of neighbourliness.
What should we make of this?

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/09/socialising-america

UK: Debate prep and forecasts

The Guardian

Romney and Obama curtail debate expectations ahead of first meeting

The two campaigns are feverishly preparing for the first of three debates that could be Romney's last chance to turn it around

By Ewen MacAskill

Each side took part in the usual ritual of talking up their opponent at the weekend in an attempt to dampen expectations. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, speaking on Fox News on Sunday, described Obama as "a very gifted speaker". Supporters of Obama claimed Romney had won nearly all of the debates during his gruelling nomination process.
Estimates for the number of viewers in America range from 50 million to 60 million, almost double the number who watched the party conventions. There will be two additional debates, in Long Island and Florida, but it is the first that usually has the most impact.
Obama, with significant poll leads in the swing states, can play defence, just getting through the evening without making a mistake. The onus is on Romney to make an impression.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/30/romney-obama-first-presidential-debate

International NYT: A conservative case for Obamacare

International Herald Tribune

Opinion

The Conservative Case for Obamacare

By J. D. KLEINKE

IF Mitt Romney’s pivots on President’s Obama’s health care reform act have accelerated to a blur — from repealing on Day 1, to preserving this or that piece, to punting the decision to the states — it is for an odd reason buried beneath two and a half years of Republican political condemnations: the architecture of the Affordable Care Act is based on conservative, not liberal, ideas about individual responsibility and the power of market forces.

This fundamental ideological paradox, drowned out by partisan shouting since before the plan’s passage in 2010, explains why Obamacare has only lukewarm support from many liberals, who wanted a real, not imagined, “government takeover of health care.” It explains why Republicans have been unable since its passage to come up with anything better. And it explains why the law is nearly identical in design to the legislation Mr. Romney passed in Massachusetts while governor. 

Read it at the IHT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/why-obamacare-is-a-conservatives-dream.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Middle East: Tea Party policies could shape the US and go global

Al Jazeera

Will Tea Party policy span the globe?

Republican Party's right wing - an anti-tax "deficit hawk" movement - could steer the White House if Mitt Romney wins.

In the two years since it first gained prominence, the Tea Party has helped shape Republican Party policy, pushing conservatives farther right on fiscal and social issues.
Some would like to dismiss the group as a fringe movement, but Tea Partiers argue that they've become the mainstream, with vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan trumpeting their views.
The Tea Party-backed standoff in Congress in the summer of 2011, when Republicans refused to raise the country's borrowing limit and risked a potential financial meltdown, illustrated how powerful they might be.
Al Jazeera's John Hendren reports.

Watch the video report: 
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/09/2012925125148303398.html

Middle East: Fears of Taliban returning

Al Jazeera

People & Power

Kabul - A City of Hope and Fear

With the US set to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 2014, what does the future hold for the country's capital?

By filmmaker John D McHugh

In two years time, the people of Kabul will again watch a superpower’s troops pack up and leave. As they withdraw, much of the aid money that has kept this country afloat for the last ten years will go with them. That could totally undermine the already fragile confidence of the Afghan business community; several company bosses - and not a few politicians - are known to be quietly planning their departure. As for Kabul, whether the Taliban could actually retake the capital after 2014 is still open to question. But as we found, most people here expect them to try. With worsening security and a government losing legitimacy, all-out civil war is a very real threat. If that happens, the progress the city has made in the last decade could again be thrown into reverse – and this time it might never recover.

Read it at Al Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/09/2012926183033267117.html