By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

NY TIMES

Commentary by Jim Campbell

Be still my heart, this appears to be a case on pro-American coverage on the disastrous consequences of Obama pulling out of Iraq when all with a clue accept him and his administration saw this coming.  This is nothing compared with the blood that will be shed when Iran decides it’s time to fill the void and move into Iraq to cease the Ramallah oil fields. 

In war as the saying goes, “Shit happens.”  With an individual occupying the White House who’s only concern is pandering to his left-wing anti-war minions, the identical result can be expected. 

From the Boston Globe only 78 Iraqi’s were killed on January 6th. U.S. Forces officially ended combat operations on December 15 to the chagrin of many.  Please see US exit from Iraq: ‘this is not a withdrawal, this is an act on a stage’ As a Californian, Leon Panetta is not a bad guy, a career politician, he follows the orders of a psychopath.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

Residents carried the coffin of a victim after an attack in Baghdad’s Zafraniyah neighborhood on Friday.

BAGHDAD — Since the United States military withdrew from Iraq in the middle of last month, 434 Iraqis have been killed in attacks across the country, according to security officials, one of the highest tolls for that amount of time in the past few years.

People gathered in Baghdad at the site of the car bomb attack.

The latest attack occurred Friday when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood. The procession was for a man who had been fatally shot, along with his wife and son, a day earlier by insurgents.

According to security officials, 31 people, including 8 police officers, were killed in the Friday attack and 60 were wounded. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a young boy was killed in an explosion near a soccer field.

It is difficult to make sweeping statements about security trends, and accounts about attacks and death tolls differ. Nevertheless, the wave of violence over the past five weeks has unnerved Iraqis who fear that their leaders, embroiled in a political fight with one another, are not prepared to thwart attacks without help from the Americans.

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Interior, the rate of deaths over the past month has been higher than all but one month last year. The average daily death toll since the withdrawal has been about 11. Last year, the average daily death toll was nine.

The attacks, which have been aimed mainly at Shiites, have also raised questions about whether the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq has regained its footing after it was significantly diminished in 2008. In recent statements on its Web site, the group said it had shifted its attention toward those with close ties to Iran, particularly Iraq’s Shiites, in an effort to push back against Iran’s influence in Iraq in the wake of the American withdrawal.

Despite the carnage, top Iraqi security officials say their fight against insurgents is increasingly successful.

The acting minister of interior, Adnan al-Asadi, said in an interview here on Thursday that when the Americans were in Iraq they made the fight against Al Qaeda more difficult.

“It became better after the Americans left,” he said. “They were slowing our operations. Sometimes we would arrest a bad guy, and they would get involved and say, ‘That is our guy,’ and they would have him set free.”

The United States provided extensive support to Iraqi security forces in counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda, including helicopter transportation for many of the raids to detain insurgents.  Mr. Asadi said that even though the Iraqis no longer have that help, “Al Qaeda has received a number of hits, and we were able to arrest a large number of their leaders.”

“We are hitting them hard,” he added. “And we are arresting big numbers of them every day, sometimes as much as 50 a day.”

The recent wave of attacks, Mr. Asadi said, was “just to prove that they are still here.”

The attack on Friday occurred around 11 a.m., as the procession made its way past a market, taking the man’s body to be cleaned before being buried.

“The people in the market got hurt, there were women and children burning,” said a man who was part of the procession and who would identify himself only as Abu Hussein. “There were a lot of officers in the funeral procession.”

Abbas Munther, 32, was selling cigarettes on the street when “the explosion went off and I flew right into the air,” he said.

“I was blinded by the heavy smoke. I couldn’t see who was beside me,” said Mr. Munther, who sustained arm and head wounds. “Then I could hear the voices of injured people and the sirens of rescue vehicles. Later I saw the ground and it was full of body parts and blood.”

On Thursday, 20 people were killed across Iraq, including a high-ranking member of the Awakening movement, which is made up of former Qaeda members who turned against the insurgents and helped the Americans and Iraqis fight them.

Zaid Thaker and Omar al-Jawoshy contributed reporting.

Do we actually have a Free Press in America or are the stories and propaganda just cranked out to support the left-wing cause of the day?

Will somebody give a clue to the lefty anti-war writers, Raheem Salman and Patrick J. McDonnell,  of the Los Angeles Times that as the saying goes, “Shit Happens.”  Constantly looking to demean our military with the likes of the finally deceased fat jack Murtha who had the soldiers convicted before the trial, we will not be hearing word one about how Iraq has disintegrated into sectarian blood-shed in which 434 Iraqi’s have been killed because our anti-war-president thought it would score him points for his soon to be failed election bid.

What about have some coverage of the humanitarian accomplishments of our military taking care of the ill, providing food and shelter. What about the troops sitting in Leavenworth M.D.B for committing crimes while given direct orders to do so by their superior officers.  Where were you on those stories? 

PFC Corey Clagett following orders in Iraq rots in Leavenworth Military Prison the victim of an inept jag attorney and an ill-informed clemency board. Photo Courtesy of Corey’s Mother Melanie.

You two give some serious thought to what you will do for a living when the totalitarian state you desire will not require your lies.

A U.S. Marine’s guilty plea to dereliction of duty closes the books on the slayings of 24 Iraqis. But it also underscores what Iraqis see as American impunity

Omer Chasib lost his father to the 2005 Marine assault in Haditha that claimed the lives of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. (Hadi Mizban, Associated Press / January 24, 2012)

• Marine’s trial ends without a conviction in 2005 Iraq killings
• 
• Rules of engagement a key issue in Marine’s court-martial

January 25, 2012

Along with the Abu Ghraib prison where Iraqi prisoners were abused by U.S. military police, and Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where 17 Iraqis were allegedly shot dead in 2007 by employees of American private contractor Blackwater, Haditha stands out as an inglorious icon.

The legacy, exposing an enduring sense of justice denied, likely hastened the withdrawal of U.S. troops after more than eight years here. Iraq’s new leaders, who owe their status in large part to the American-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, ultimately opted to reject an immunity deal for any remaining American forces. The White House then ordered the pullout.

Overall reaction in Iraq to Wuterich’s plea appeared somewhat muted Tuesday, reflecting, Iraqis say, an already deeply rooted skepticism about the U.S. justice system. Iraqis are also distracted by a political crisis that some fear could result in renewed sectarian warfare: At least 10 people were killed Tuesday in bombings in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, a Shiite Muslim stronghold.

Still, this week’s legal denouement has stirred bitter memories for some and arouses anew a sense of outrage over what many Iraqis view as U.S. impunity.

“This is the wrong message,” said Yaseen Mehdi, an engineer and human rights activist. “We are not looking for financial compensation. We are looking for ethical compensation.”

Others have lamented what they saw as a lack of contrition.

“With such crimes, the man who is responsible at least has to apologize to the families of the martyrs,” said Ashwaq Jaff, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee. She has no doubt that cases such as Haditha, reinforcing the perception that U.S. forces went unpunished in the death or abuse of Iraqis, helped sully America’s image.

“There was a very negative reaction as a result of these incidents,” said Jaff, a Kurd, one Iraqi ethnic group that did largely welcome the U.S. invasion. “This made the Iraqi street refuse their [continued] presence in Iraq.”

On Tuesday, Wuterich said he accepts responsibility for the deaths. “Words cannot express my sorrow for the loss of your loved ones,” he said in an apology to the families of the 24 Iraqis killed. “I know there is nothing I can say to ease your pain.”

Many see a stark contradiction between the legal outcome of the Haditha affair and Washington’s publicly professed concern for human rights, especially as the Arab world experiences continued political upheaval and justice is a rallying cry from Damascus to Tunis.

“America needs to reform the ethical side of its judicial establishments and enlighten the world with that,” said Mehdi, the Baghdad-based activist.

Word of the Haditha plea and other cases of perceived American callousness in war zones may heighten mistrust of the U.S. presence in other war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, human rights advocates say.

Some U.S. observers have assailed what they called a flawed prosecution, but others see the killings mainly as a case study of what can go wrong when fighting a shadowy enemy in a “morally bruising environment,” as one Marine officer put it.

Even after the killings, Marines say they earned the respect of Haditha officials and sheiks. That is so, Marines say, because they risked their lives daily to clear the area of insurgents who regularly targeted and executed civilians.

“Marines know that they are the best-trained and led military men and women in the world, but the cauldron of war is the most intense thing humans can experience and this case falls on the extreme end of that spectrum,” said Marine Col. Willy Buhl, an Iraq veteran. “I am relieved that the case is over with resolution through the military justice system.”

It is not over, however, for Iraqis such as Thair Thabit Hadithi, 41, a photographer who says he came upon the scene shortly after the killings.

On Tuesday, he recalled the unrelenting crackle of gunfire, an injured victim bleeding to death outside his house, the black nylon body bags in which Marines placed the corpses.

The Marine Corps initially said 15 Iraqis had been killed in a roadside bombing and that the others perished in a subsequent firefight. None of that was true. Hadithi said he had grisly photos of the scene, showing the devastation and bloodshed in a poor residential quarter. The photographer said he fled to Syria, fearing arrest once the Marines learned that he had images contradicting the official version of events.

“The crime changed Iraqis’ opinions toward the Americans,” Hadithi said. “We had the idea that they respected human rights and respected humanity. But it seems they did not.”

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Special correspondent Salman reported from Baghdad and Times staff writer McDonnell from Beirut. Times staff writers Tony Perry in San Diego and Scott Gold in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

To be found below under the heading What is propaganda?

Can America Survive the Dark Sophistry of Spiritually Diseased GOP Leftists?

Kelly OConnell

Canada Free Press

It would be perverse to suggest the recent Matt Drudge-delivered blitzkrieg against Newt Gingrich was anything but a massive, coordinated propaganda campaign to incinerate his candidacy to cinders and ash.

Romney, brings new meaning to sucking up!

Setting the Record Straight: The Facts
Newt’s Positions on the Issues and His Record

Of course, it would also be unfair to insinuate Newt is anything but the father of many of his own current struggles. But, be that as it may, it is hard to see how such a scorched earth policy against a lively and talented Republican with vast leadership experience helps the GOP or harms Obama.

Such propaganda campaigns are not unknown in politics, but are rare in healthy democracies. That such a firebombing maneuver is being waged within the GOP against a viable member in order to transparently benefit Mitt Romney—the most progressive candidate—cannot possibly bode well for the future state of the party or of our union as a whole.

Jacques Ellul wrote one of the great modern works on Propaganda, tapping deeply into the psyche of the masters of political mischaracterization and mass manipulation. He observed one added aspect to the traditional dark arts of the propagandist – making the goal of propaganda the moving adherents towards a mystical ideology and false religion. According to Ellul, the purpose of propaganda is to exhaust man’s freedom, and so to make him directable in all his words, thoughts and deeds. The subject of modern propaganda is the topic of this essay.

I. What is Propaganda?

I’m a trained propaganda writer and I’m proud of it.  I even taught it for awhile at the Defense Information School in Indianapolis, IN.  Propaganda for sure is used with ill intent.  I however, have my bias clearly stated above the header at this site which says: IS THIS SITE BIASED?  Of course it is.  My training has also prepared me to see what are called red flag ops, (disinformation) and believe me they are being run by the government  our political parties continually. 

My bias is for refuting propaganda, not spreading it, and providing fact based and well sourced information to make my points.  We are in perhaps the most filthy viscous primary and presidential election in history.  You want the facts and my bias then jump aboard.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

Webster’s defines propaganda as:

The spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Or; Ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause; also, a public action having such an effect.

Jacques Ellul claims there is no single definition of propaganda, but lists one made by the former Institute for Propaganda Analysis, as being highly influential. The IPA defined propaganda as

The expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately by individuals or groups with a view to influencing the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends and through psychological manipulations.

II. Jacques Ellul’s Analysis of Propaganda

One of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century, Jacques Ellul’s most widely known work is Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.This book goes well-beyond the typical fare on the subject, creating a masterful portrait of the often terrifying modern use of propaganda. Ellul’s fascinating study includes the following points:

A. Education is for Propaganda: Use of propaganda necessitates the proper kind of public education system. Since a good education for children foils such indoctrination, it’s absolutely imperative that early training prepare a child for lifelong manipulation. Or, as Ellul’s English translator, Konrad Kellen says about his issue,

A related point, central in Ellul’s thesis, is that modern propaganda cannot work without “education;” he thus reverses the widespread notion that education is the best prophylactic against propaganda. On the contrary he says, education, or what usually goes by that word in the modern world, is the absolute prerequisite for propaganda. In fact, education is largely identical with what Ellul calls ‘pre-propaganda—the conditioning of minds with vast amounts of incoherent information, already dispensed for ulterior purposes and posing as “facts” and as “education.”

It cannot be doubted that modern “free” public education stresses “facts” versus how to think, write and debate—or the core curriculum of the famed liberal education. This failure is the source of much subsequent evil.

B. Intellectuals are Empty Vessels Designed for Propaganda: Consequently, intellectuals are not merely the most likely group to be successfully directed by propaganda, but their very ideological existence depends upon drinking from this well. Again, Kellen sums up this point:

Ellul follows through by designating intellectuals as virtually the most vulnerable of all to modern propaganda, for three reasons: (1) they absorb the largest amounts of second hand, unverifiable information; (2) they feel a compelling need to have an opinion on every important question of our time, and thus easily succumb to opinions offered to them by propaganda on all such indigestible pieces of information; (3) they feel themselves capable of “judging for themselves.” They literally need propaganda.

C. Propaganda is Geared for Action, Not Mere Belief—But Defeated by Debate: Propaganda is meant to direct persons to act, not merely believe. Contra, it is imperative they do not think deeply about their action. Ellul says on this,

Remember that propaganda seeks to induce action, adherence and participation – with as little thought as possible. According to propaganda, it is useless, even harmful for man to think; thinking prevents him from acting with the required righteousness and simplicity. Action must come directly from the depths of the unconscious; it must release tension, become a reflex. This presumes that thought unfolds on an entirely unread level, that it never engages in political decisions. And this is in fact so. No political thought that is at all coherent or distinct can possibly be applied.

But as Ellul writes,

Propaganda ceases where simple dialogue begins…Propaganda cannot be satisfied with partial successes, for it does not tolerate discussion; by its very nature, it excludes contradiction and discussion.

In other words, propaganda seeks to overwhelm the recipient so that resistance seems foolish or even crazy.

D. Propaganda is Anti-Historical & Consumes all Literature: The appetite for a historically cleansed record in accord with present propagandized narratives is also noted by Ellul, as he writes:

Finally, propaganda will take over literature (present and past) and history, which must be rewritten according to propaganda’s needs.

We have seen this recently with Gingrich’s “history: being mauled beyond recognition, and with other histories, such as the Puritans who had to be demonized because their convictions are now verboten. Further, the Arts themselves become vessels for delivery of propaganda, such as Eisenstein’s masterpiece—Battleship Potemkin.

E. Modern Propaganda is Deeply Religious: The difference between modern and older propaganda is the newer variety seeks not just to persuade, but more importantly to cause to become a follower of mystical, religious claims regarding some special group or ideology.

Ellul comments on this,

The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief…the propagandist tries to create myths by which man will live, which respond to his sense of the sacred. Such an image pushes man to action precisely because it includes all that he feels is good, just and true, such as the myth of race, of the proletariat, of the F√ºhrer, of Communist society. Eventually the myth takes possession of a man’s mind so completely that his life is consecrated to it.

F. Modern Man is the Center of Reality: Propaganda regimes creates a godless, humanistic cult. It claims the proper aim in life is happiness; that man is naturally good; that history develops in endless progress; that everything is matter. Ellul writes of the plight of irreligious modern man, who in his loneliness becomes an easy target for propaganda campaigns:

Above all he is a victim of emptiness-he is a man devoid of meaning. He is very busy, but he is emotionally empty, open to all entreaties and in search of only one thing-something to fill his inner void. To fill this void he goes to the movies-only a very temporary remedy. He seeks some deeper and more fulfilling attraction. He is available, and ready to listen to propaganda. He is the lonely man…

He feels the most violent need to be re-integrated into a community, to have a setting, to experience ideological and affective communication. That loneliness inside the crowd is perhaps the most terrible ordeal of modern man; that loneliness in which he can share nothing, talk to nobody, and expect nothing from anybody, leads to severe personality disturbances. For it, propaganda, encompassing Human Relations, is an incomparable remedy. It corresponds to the need to share, to be a member of a community to lose oneself in a group, to embrace a collective ideology that will end loneliness. Propaganda is the true remedy for loneliness.

III. Gingrich, Drudge & Leftist Opinion Formation

It was extraordinary to recently witness the Drudge Report website used to transparently propagandize against presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. In fact, on January 26th, 2012—ten anti-Gingrich stories sprouted on the front of the drudgereport by 7:40 am. Consider some of the Drudge titles: “Insider: Gingrich repeatedly Insulted Reagan”; “William Jefferson Gingrich”, etc.

So what did Gingrich do to attract such vitriol and naked spleen? Who knows, exactly? Certainly, Newt’s past battles with GOP brethren comes into play, as do various of his personal peccadillo’s and past sins. The important thing, though is that a stunningly negative zeitgeist arose against Gingrich, drawing a who’s who list of GOP royalty out to launch a season of condemnation against him. All in all, it was an extraordinary and ferocious show of power and volte-face unity. And its not over.

One can only ponder where such brave intransigence might have landed the GOP if such a move were assembled against Barack in support of John McCain,. Again, the perfect is used as a hammer against the good—and all suffer as a result.

But blue-blooded Republicans have forgotten one thing—it’s not a Conservative value to shamelessly slander and bear false witness against a brother, regardless of how wayward his past might be. Neither is it a trick of the right to rig elections. Instead, this is the unacceptable face of leftism, always lurking beneath the surface of the GOP leadership.

Conclusion

The extent to which modern people are manipulated into thinking or believing ideas or “facts” that have no substance is remarkable. Recall, for example, the job resumes offered by Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, compared between the two, before the 2008 election. And yet one was lionized, and the other despised, simply through use of naked propaganda. Ellul writes on this, “Propaganda displaces and liberates feelings of aggression by offering specific objects of hatred to the citizen.”

In the end, if Mitt Romney is our next elected president, and uncannily refuses to dismantle Obamacare, will we only have liberal GOP leaders to blame for our nation’s inevitable destruction? Or should we only blame ourselves?

Contra, seasoned political polecat Newt Gingrich may not be out of his nine lives just yet. Stay tuned, sports-fans!

President Obama’s State of the Union address laid out his long-term economic recovery plans, which he claims will “work for everyone, not just a wealthy few.” That is, unless it is the pipeline construction business.

President Obama’s politically intoned decision to reject TransCanada’s permit application to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries last week sent a clear message that special-interest demands are more important than more energy and much-needed job creation.

Despite the Department of State’s (DOS) finding that Keystone XL would pose no significant environmental threat, environmental activists’ relentless opposition persuaded President Obama to deny the permit application.Congress should recognize the findings in the DOS Final Environmental Impact Statement and authorize the application submitted by Trans Canada on September 19, 2008.

Broad Support for Jobs, Energy, and Economic Growth

Although President Obama is catering to a narrow group of special interests, broad support exists for construction of the pipeline. The most glaringly obvious is the labor unions that stand to benefit from the jobs that would be created.  Nor is this a partisan project. On October 19, 2011, 22 House Democrats sent a letter to President Obama pleading that “America needs the Keystone XL Pipeline. It is in our national interest to have a Presidential Permit issued for Keystone XL as soon as possible.”  Understanding the economic implications, Senators Max Baucus (D–MT), Jon Tester (D–MT), Joe Manchin (D–WV), Ben Nelson (D–NE), Mark Begich (D–AK), and Mary Landrieu (D–LA) have all expressed support for the pipeline. (Liberal Speak: Running for election.)

The President’s own jobs council underscored the need for not only more oil, natural gas, and coal but also energy infrastructure projects:

Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel. The Council recognizes the important safety and environmental concerns surrounding these types of projects, but now more than ever, the jobs and economic and energy security benefits of these energy projects require us to tackle the issues head-on and to expeditiously, though cautiously, move forward on projects that can support hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The President’s “Forced” Decision

President Obama initially delayed the decision until after the 2012 elections because he claimed that additional environmental review from the DOS was necessary. The payroll tax holiday legislation signed at the end of 2011 moved that decision deadline up to February 21.

The President rejected the permit, claiming, “This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.”

The reality is that DOS has already conducted a thorough, three-year environmental review with multiple comment periods. DOS studied and addressed risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, wildlife, and endangered species. They concluded that construction of the pipeline would pose minimal environmental risk. Keystone XL also met 57 specific pipeline safety standard requirements created by DOS and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Furthermore, the pipeline would be equipped with 16,000 sensors connected to a satellite that would monitor the pressure of the pipeline.

Much of the concern of environmentalists and Nebraska residents has focused on the original route of the pipeline, particularly the area where the pipeline would cross the Ogallala Aquifer and the state’s Sand Hills region. Nebraska already has miles of natural gas, crude, refined products, and petrochemical pipelines crossing the state’s purportedly sensitive Ogallala Aquifer, specifically including pipelines in the Sand Hills region. DOS also concluded that oil contamination of drinking water would not be likely in many instances because the soil composition prevents or mitigates the downward migration of oil.

With respect to the Sand Hills region, experts from the University of Nebraska, the State Resource Conservationist, the National Resources Conservation Service, and the Nebraska Department of Roads all provided valuable information to the DOS on how to properly maintain the area. DOS studied a number of alternative routes to minimize or completely avoid the pipeline crossing over Sand Hills. The department worked with the Bureau of Land Management and state agencies where the pipeline passes through and made more than 340 minor realignments to the entire pipeline route.

Time for Congress to Step Up

A simple, effective approach to commence construction immediately would be for Congress to authorize the pipeline application as submitted by TransCanada pursuant to its authority to regulate commerce with other nations. TransCanada and Nebraska’s Department of Environmental Quality are already working on a reroute to satisfy landowners and state officials in Nebraska.

Since there is no federal entity that sites and authorizes interstate petroleum pipeline construction, the state of Nebraska could site and approve an alternative route following the PHMSA’s construction codes. Doing so would create jobs and increase energy production—both of which the nation desperately needs—from a friendly supplier and ally.

Nicolas D. Loris is a Policy Analyst in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Read more…

by Dan Mitchell

International Liberty

The Cato Institute

People keep emailing and complaining that I must be an Obama supporter since I periodically post critical information about Romneyand Gingrich.

In response, I say that it’s my role to simply tell the truth and dispassionately analyze public policy.

But being disappointed in the leading Republicans doesn’t mean I’m deluded about Obama and his agenda. This cartoon nicely captures my view of the President’s track record.

And if you want something more substantive, this data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve shows how Obamanomics is grossly inferior to Reaganomics.

Digging through a number of sources Mitt once again is overstating the obvious. Let’s be serious for a moment, how many Olympic Games have failed?

Ever the showman, was turning around the Olympics such a major feat for the turn around artist? Or were there bigger considerations like running for Governor of MA in 2002?

In all my searching I could not find anybody but athletes making the final pass to the Commissioner of Olympic Organizing Committee.

Did “He salvaged the 2002 Winter Olympic Games from certain disaster,” Romney’s campaign Web site states.

“Any well trained chimpanzee could have come in and had a successful Olympics,” said Doug Foxley, a Salt Lake City lobbyist and former adviser to Romney’s  one time presidential rival Jon Huntsman, Jr.

(Reuters) – - By the late 1990s, Mitt Romney had succeeded in business, failed in politics, and reached a crossroads. The path he took was to the Olympics.

In 1999, three years before the 2002 Winter Olympics, the Salt Lake City games were mired in a bribery scandal and facing a $400 million budget shortfall. Utah’s capital city, home of the straight-laced Mormon Church, had won its bid to host the Games with a shower of cash and presents on International Olympic Committee officials, bringing disgrace upon itself and the global sports organization.

Then Mitt took over. When five gargantuan Olympic rings lit up the mountains around Salt Lake in 2002, they burned away the last hint of scandal, healed a nation recovering from the September 11 terrorist attacks, and made Romney into a household name. Massachusetts voters who had snubbed him in a 1994 Senate race elected him governor later that year, setting the stage for two presidential bids in which he has frequently invoked the Olympic turnaround.

An examination of the three years Romney spent in Salt Lake reveals a man somewhat different from the often-wooden candidate on the stump this year. Back then, according to interviews with colleagues and friends, he joked easily with his staff and showed a warm personal side.

But Romney also displayed sharp, even ruthless, political instincts as he worked to salvage the Games. Critics say he stage-managed these efforts to burnish his own image, at the expense of others. He calculated the effect of every action, from urging his senior staff to smile to cancelling the five-star lifestyle that went with Olympic management. He also worked behind closed doors to pressure the man who had organized the city’s bid for the games to plead guilty on charges that eventually were tossed out of court.

No one disputes that, in the end, the 2002 Winter Games were a brilliant success. But some argue that Utah’s deep tradition of volunteerism, widespread support for the Olympic bid in the state and in the Mormon Church, and the global outpouring of goodwill — and cash — that followed the tragedy of the 9/11 terror attacks deserve much of the credit.

MR. FIXIT

Bob Garff, the Salt Lake City businessman and politician who chaired the Olympic Games, pursued Mitt even though he was something of an outsider. The Romneys, like the Garffs, are one of the old Mormon clans that helped build Utah, but Mitt’s father George Romney had made his career in Michigan, where he turned around tiny AMC Motors then became governor. Mitt settled in Massachusetts after taking his law and business degrees at Harvard.

According to the book he later wrote about his time in Salt Lake, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games, Romney wasn’t sure he wanted the job. In the aftermath of his failed 1994 Senate run against Edward Kennedy he returned to his investment firm. But, he wrote, “I kept asking myself, ‘Do I really want to stay at Bain Capital for the rest of my life? Do I want to make it even more successful, make even more money? Why?’” Romney was already well on the way to the fortune, worth as much as $264 million, reported in his presidential financial filing.

His wife, Anne, argued for taking the job, appealing to his sense of civic duty. The Senate campaign had also shown Romney that his business success was a double-edged sword when it came to politics.

Romney had gone straight from Harvard to a career as a business consultant. He landed at Bain & Co., then became wealthy starting a spin-off investment company, Bain Capital.

Along the way, Romney cultivated an image as Mr. Fixit, even averting a bankruptcy when his old firm, Bain & Co., fell on hard times. Romney convinced partners and creditors to cooperate, and extracted promises from key consultants to stay while the company righted itself, remembered Geoffrey Rehnert, a colleague at the time. “He’s good at getting people to deflate their egos,” Rehnert said.

Bain Capital, which was independent of Bain & Co., began by taking stakes in new businesses, helping to launch office supply giant Staples, for example. But it turned to private equity, which focuses more on improving or turning around existing businesses. Private equity firms frequently have the companies they buy take out massive loans to retool — and pay back the new owners’ investments. Not every business survived the treatment, and when Romney made his first foray into politics, he was chewed up and spit out by the lion of the U.S. Senate, Teddy Kennedy.

Romney changed his registration from Independent to Republican in 1993 to take on Kennedy, and spent $3 million of his own money on the campaign. He lost the election — and his polished reputation as a turnaround artist and job creator — after Kennedy hammered him on job cuts by Bain.

In one particularly effective Kennedy ad, a laid off Indiana worker said, “If he’s created jobs, I wish he could create some here, you know, instead of taking ‘em away.” Bain-backed Ampad had bought the paper products plant and fired workers, while Romney was on leave from the firm. Striking workers trooped out to Boston and followed Romney’s campaign for days before he agreed to meet with them, the Boston Globe reported at the time. Kennedy “swept me up and off the floor,” Romney admitted in Turnaround.

MISSION: OLYMPICS

When Romney arrived in Salt Lake City, federal officials were investigating whether bribes had been paid to get the Olympic bid, and staff and volunteers were demoralized. A budget review had found a $400 million shortfall, and potential sponsors had stopped in their tracks.

“It was really ugly, ugly, ugly there,” said Cindy Gillespie, who had worked for the Atlanta games – tarnished by disorganization and a homegrown terror attack – then moved on to Salt Lake.

Romney approached the job as both a consultant’s case study and a marketing exercise. He had to clean up operations and also clean up the image. Garff and local reporters remember an impressive performance at his first press conference, facing a barrage of questions with conviction and aplomb.

“We came away from that with the momentum changed,” said Garff, who felt that performance revealed Romney’s political savvy.

Ever the business consultant, Romney started with a basic question — what is the mission of the Olympic Games? It was not to goose the local economy, and it was not to teach youths about peace and goodwill, he concluded. It was about the athletes, and the measure of success would be whether the events went off well for them, Gillespie said.

With that decision, the team had a clear goal — and Romney could proceed to methodically separate essential expenditures from nonessential ones to close the $400 million budget gap. Youth camps, which would have brought kids from around the world to study each others’ cultures, for example, became part of $200 million in cuts, Gillespie recalled.

But limiting the mission in this way rankled some Salt Lake City natives who had worked on the Olympics before Romney arrived. It wasn’t easy to get the Games: Utahns tried for decades, even voting for a special tax to build Olympic facilities before they won their 2002 bid. In their view, Romney’s approach failed to properly respect the state, the Mormon church, the volunteers, and the powerful business partners, such as NBC, who were deeply invested in the games.

“We didn’t need some hedge fund guy coming in to get this done,” said Ken Bullock, head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, who had a number of run-ins with Romney while working on the Olympic committee.

Romney understands that a symbol tells a story. At a recent Republican presidential debate he was blunt about the matter, relating how he told a yard service manager that he could not have undocumented workers mowing his grass. “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals,” he said.

In his book on the games, Romney described how billionaire Bill Marriott once asked him for a receipt for a 35 cent highway toll. Romney’s boss at the time explained that Marriott would want the story to get around headquarters so the troops would know how careful he was about money.

“The details are important,” Romney wrote.

In that spirit, Romney dropped catered lunches at local Olympic meetings, charging board members $1 a slice for pizza, and swapped out of a five-star hotel when he went to Switzerland to report to the International Olympic Committee. He declared he would work for free unless and until the Games were a financial success, admitting that he was wealthy enough that the gesture required no real sacrifice.

Ken Bullock and other critics are driven to distraction by Romney’s claim that he saved the games. But at the time he took little credit for himself, letting others cast him as the savior.

Nevertheless, Romney took a very public role in shaping the narrative of games — from scandal to success. When Romney was brought in, he was pushed in front of the cameras, and he remained there. Bullock in particular felt that Romney controlled the story. “No one could have a difference of opinion,” Bullock said.

Though Romney now keeps at a cool remove from national reporters following his campaign, in Utah he courted the local press, and at one point dismissed his own public relations person from an interview to show he had nothing to hide. He was a paragon of transparency, supplying documents – including ones about the scandal – to reporters.

He also sought to draw a clear line around the bad old days before his arrival and leave those issues behind, privately lobbying for a swift out-of-court settlement in the bribery investigation.

“MITT HAPPENS”

Sydney Fonnesbeck, a former Salt Lake City council member, remembers getting a call from Romney, asking her to persuade Tom Welch, who led the city’s bid effort, to plead guilty. “It was a way to get over it. It was too distracting to actually doing the Games. It was all for the good of the games, the good of Utah. I thought he was sincere,” recalled Fonnesbeck, who believes Utah owes a debt to Welch for landing the Olympics.

She turned Romney down, and in December, 2003, Federal District Court Judge David Sam threw out the bribery case, saying it “offends my sense of justice” and calling it a “misplaced prosecution.”

By dismissing the charges, Judge Sam denied the government even the possibility of appeal, an unusually harsh gesture. Romney, in his book, said the authorities who pursued the case were “inept.”

But former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who led a special investigation for the U.S. Olympic Committee, spread the blame broadly among international, national, and local players. Fonnesbeck and others saw Welch and David Johnson as scapegoats for a city and state that had pursued the Games, knowing the only way to win them was to play by unsavory rules. Neither Welch nor Johnson would comment for this article.

“He did a good job,” Fonnesbeck said of Romney. “I have no complaints about the final product. I just feel bad that he had to do it the way he did. It was kind of like he couldn’t do well unless he made others look bad,” she said.

In response to a request for comment, the Romney campaign credited, in a written statement, “the commitment and dedication of many people who served in the Olympics.”

Detractors point to a collection of Mitt Romney lapel pins as the essence of his self-promotion. One pin shows Romney in a superhero cape, another, for Valentine’s Day, has his square-jawed, smiling face in a heart with the slogan, “Hey Mitt, We Love You.” A third, shaped like a baseball glove, says ” Mitt happens.”

Romney’s closest advisers say they don’t recall who decided to make the pins. Fraser Bullock said Romney might have approved them as a scheme to help the budget, because Olympic pins are big sellers.

On the campaign trail today, Romney makes grand claims about his ability to turn around the economy, but in Salt Lake he was modest and self-deprecating, once offering up a David Letterman-style Top 10 list of mistakes by the organizing committee. It included a starting gate that began smoking during an equipment test – but not the bribes that led to his joining the Games, according to the Deseret News.

Bullock remembers walking into his boss’s office one day in the summer of 2001. “I think after all this work, it’s really going to pay off,” he told his boss. “Mitt in his typical style said ‘Great. Appreciate all the work of the team. But let’s not just tell anybody, because we just want to manage expectations.’”

A SYMBOLIC EVENT

A few months later, those expectations had to be overhauled. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that brought down Manhattan’s twin towers happened just five months before the Games. Romney was in Washington, D.C., when the third plane struck the Pentagon, and he pulled to the side of the road in a cloud of acrid smoke from the burning building.

When he finally got back to Salt Lake, he delivered an address that has become legend, speaking about the awesome responsibility and the honor of hosting the world’s first international meeting after the attacks. He then led the team singing America the Beautiful, Fraser Bullock recalls. “He’s a very good singer,” he said.

It was hectic, Bullock added. Nations considered dropping out of the Games. Millions of dollars of tickets and hotel room reservations were put on hold. And organizers began to revamp the security arrangements, including plans for a ‘no-fly-zone’ over the sports venues.

Romney was keenly aware of the new symbolism infused in the Games by 9/11, and of the wave of patriotism that boosted New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President George W. Bush and other public officials into the ranks of heroes. He benefited from that surge of emotion as well.

The Games went off with fanfare and no mistakes in February, 2002, and Romney was covered in glory, perhaps no more so than when he strode into the Olympic stadium with Bush and to greet a tattered flag from Manhattan.

But on that glory, too, opinion is divided.

“Do you honestly think after 9/11 that our country was going to let these games – or the world was going to let these Games not be a great success?” asked Ken Bullock. “Whether it was for security, or whether it was for a transportation project – whatever the case may be, the check book opened,” he said.

Romney himself pointed out, in his book, that Congress’s biggest critic of public support of the Games, Arizona Senator John McCain, reversed himself after the attacks. McCain ushered Romney into his office to say there would be no problem with security spending for the Olympics.

Would the Games have failed without Romney?

“It’s tough to prove a negative,” said former Utah Governor Michael Leavitt. “But I think if you search Olympic history, you’ll have a hard time finding a better executed Games.”

Romney’s national triumph with the Olympics was his springboard to political viability. Massachusetts Republicans, concerned about their scandal-tinged incumbent governor started a “draft Mitt” campaign, and he went on the win the state race by a respectable 50 percent to 45 percent. He quit after one term to begin running for president fulltime.

In Utah, meanwhile, Romney remains a rock star. He outpolled native son Jon Huntsman, Jr., by 71 percent to 13 percent in an August survey by the Salt Lake Tribune, which is remarkable considering that Jon Huntsman, Sr., is one of the state’s most powerful men and generous philanthropists.

By some accounts, Jon, Sr., wanted his son, then an executive in the family’s multi-billion-dollar business, to get the Olympics job, and the families have been on strained terms ever since. Some of the most vicious attack ads against Romney in this presidential primary are being produced by the Huntsman camp.

But, according to that same poll, Utahns believe the Games showed that Romney had the financial know-how and moral steadiness to be president. There, at least, the Olympic flame is still lighting Romney’s career.

Commentary by Jim Campbell

Both of these gentleman don’t fit the main stream media’s agenda, Herman Cain was forced to withdraw because of media biased lies and allegations brought forward by the Ambulance chasing LA Attorney, Gloria, ” I’ll do anything for a photo-op and to support Obama” Allred.”

But of course Newt is in their gun sights they know he is everything Obama isn’t and will begin to turn the country away from socialism which the fools in the media adore.

Perhaps it will be explained to them that the slide from socialism to totalitarianism is not that great, when they ultimately get what they hope for they will be out of work.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Former presidential hopeful Herman Cain threw his support behind Newt Gingrich Saturday night, providing the former House speaker with a late boost just days before Florida’s primary.

Cain, a tea party favorite, endorsed his fellow Georgian at a GOP fundraiser Saturday calling him “a patriot.”

“Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas,” Cain said.

The former pizza executive, who left the race before the first nominating contests after facing accusations of unwanted sexual advances, suggested the two have both undergone intense scrutiny.

“I know that Speaker Gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder,” Cain said. “I know what this sausage grinder is all about.”

Cain is set to campaign with Gingrich on Monday in an 11th hour push for support. Gingrich is in a fierce fight for Tuesday’s Florida’s GOP primary with Mitt Romney.

Gingrich on Saturday night said that, like Cain, he is running a campaign based on big ideas and bold solutions.

The decision was not unexpected but the announcement comes at a make or break moment. .

“I had it in my heart and mind a long time ago,” Cain said.

The timing is similar to a Saturday night surprise four years ago, when then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain’s presidential bid.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry also endorsed Gingrich when he bowed out of the race in South Carolina.

Since exiting the race in December, Cain appeared at a rally in South Carolina with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert.

Cain, the charismatic former head of Godfather’s Pizza, briefly led in the polls in the fall. He became known for his signature 9-9-9 tax overhaul plan that would have scrapped the current tax code and replaced it with a 9 percent tax on individual income and corporate taxes as well as a new 9 percent national sales tax.

But his support plummeted after accusations that he sexually harassed women more than a decade ago when he led the National Restaurant Association. An Atlanta-area woman then stepped forward and said she had a lengthy sexual affair with Cain.

He denied the affair and any wrongdoing but withdrew from the race saying the accusations had become distracting and he needed to focus on his family.

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By Erin McPike

Commentary by Jim Campbell

Of course Romney would bolt when asked to sit down using this format which shows the candidates substance rather than his slickness. Haven’t we had enough slick with Obama?

When Newt finally receives the Republican Nomination he has promised the challenge Obama to six such debates.  Trust me, Obama will be on vacation.

The question we must focus upon in the up coming debate is do we want a many who is certainly more conservative, or a many that spent his 12 years as not much more that a deal maker and salesman for BAIN Capital?   You want slick go with Mitt he can be anybody man as they picture below shows he will say anything to anyone to get their vote.

If Willard “Mitt Romney” was such a great governor why was he unelectable for a second term. People with his ego don’t give up power, the numbers showed he would not win.  That certainly brings new meaning to the saying, When the going gets tough the tough get going.”

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

With the Republican presidential primary appearing to have narrowed into a two-man contest, Human Events and Red State moved quickly to lock down a date for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

The two organizations went so far this past Monday as to firm up the Annenberg Theater at the Newseum in Washington as the venue on Dec. 19 after another debate originally scheduled that day was canceled. For its part, the Newseum was excited to host the pre-primary forum.

As Joe Guerriero, publisher of Human Events and Red State, put it to RCP: “Newt was all over it, and the Romney camp basically said no. It wasn’t a harsh no, but it was a no.”

A Gingrich spokesman confirmed to RCP that the candidate was interested and accepted the invitation, but a Romney spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment.

Guerriero explained that the impetus for the debate was this: Romney has long been presumed to be the nominee. But with Gingrich surging in the polls, why shouldn’t the Republican base get a chance to see the two top candidates go toe-to-toe?

“No disrespect to any of the other candidates,” Guerriero said, but given the state of the country, the economy, and the race to date, if Romney is to be the nominee, “he needs to go against the best debater with the deepest understanding of policy both domestic and foreign, and that appears to be Newt Gingrich.”

It’s no secret that Gingrich likes debates and has performed well in them, but Romney has had his share of solid performances too, and Guerriero and his colleagues believe Romney would stand to benefit from a two-person format featuring his toughest opponent to prepare him for debates against President Obama if he does win the GOP nomination.

He continued, “It looks like Newt’s made a real run at this, and the Romney camp is trying to run out the clock, and we don’t think that’s necessarily a wise strategy.” Instead, he said, the base should be able to see the top candidates answer the tough questions that these conservative publications don’t believe are being asked.

Going forward, Guerriero said, they have asked the candidates if they would agree to such a debate after the first few primary contests. Gingrich, he said, “is itching to do it,” but the Romney campaign “has been more circumspect.”

They hope to get one on the calendar soon, he said, but for now it won’t be for the date they had planned on prior to the Iowa caucuses. Guerriero said he realized the debate might not be as big as the debates that television networks can produce, but he asserted, “We want them onstage together.”