Found an interesting comment about Romney on a blog that might have some truth to it . . .

[HughBeaumont]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/08/29/mitt-romney-tells-533-lies-in-30-weeks-steve-benen-documents-them/#disqus_thread

This particular entry is in response to an article about how many lies Mitt Romney has told in a period of 30 days (533 lies). It might not be too far off in explaining why a guy who's worth a quarter of a billion dollars wants to be President (thanks to Ross).

Romney is running for president for the same reason as the reason for most of the things the 0.1% do. He wants to be president to keep one of them from being president.

At a certain point of sociopathy, it's not about what you can get for yourself, but about what you can keep the proles from having.

That's what's keeping the alliance from collapsing from in-fighting. I mean, if it was just about accumulating wealth for yourself, why keep trying to screw the poor? If you want to double your wealth, you won't do it by taking the last 2% of the global wealth from the poor -- you'll get it by bankrupting your rivals and taking *their* money. Poaching ONE Koch brother will fatten your bank account more than raiding the pensions of a million wage-slaves.

But they don't because it's not about increasing their wealth -- they've got so much already that any sense of "more" is purely academic. But you know what they *can* quantify? What they deny to others.

If I'm healthy, additional "health" isn't going to make me healthier, but denying healthcare to others *will* have a visible effect.

If I've got a billion dollars, another hundred thousand means very little to me. But if I can take a hundred thousand dolars and in doing so, reduce a family to desperation, that's something I can look at, and say "Behold my accomplishment!"

Mitt Romney wants to be president so that no one else can have it. Especially someone who might do some good with it.

Just another toy to collect . . . . to say he has it?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. That theory resembles the theory of the consumer.

Two reasons why someone will purchase an item:

1. They want or need that item.
2. To keep someone else from purchasing it/if they don't purchase it, someone else will.

[avebury]

2. K&R nt

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Let me try to take it a step further--

Last edited Mon Sep 3, 2012, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

We judge things in relative terms. Above a certain level (i.e. a level where you have enough to satisfy your needs and reasonable desires), you assess your wealth in terms of the difference between what you have and what the masses have. There are two ways to increase your perceived wealth--by acquiring more, and by pushing the downtrodden further down the scale.

As I write this, I realize I could substitute the word "power" for "wealth," and it would still be true. Romney likes being able to fire people; he trips people to get ahead; he smashes little companies and leaves others holding the bag as he makes off with the loot; he assaults someone who is different; he puts his dog through an ordeal; he points out to NASCAR fans how cheaply they are dressed. In each case, he enhances his feeling of power by belittling, demeaning or tormenting others.

[ewagner]

15. There must be something about the northwoods....

somewhere up in da' nortdwoods, in the jackpine forests, there is time for reflection and great wisdom...

thanks for a great post.

[ewagner]

17. Also a case in point...

I worked with some locals who were/are extremely well-off. When I visited one in his office, I saw a sign on the wall behind his desk that read:

]"At Death, he with the most toys wins!"

Apparently the ruthless pursuit of toys (power, wealth) is all that matters..by whatever means, having more than the "other guy" at death is all that counts.

[JDPriestly]

20. May I quote your last paragraph. It is so succinct and well said.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Of course, Ma'am, but please note I just slightly edited it

to complete a sentence, so it would be good to update your copy.

[AllyCat]

4. That's why he keeps saying it's his turn

Last edited Mon Sep 3, 2012, 10:22 AM - Edit history (1)

To be POTUS . He's attempting to play nice before he tries to take what he wants.

[HughBeaumont]

5. i.e. "I WAS teh guberner, but now I wants to be president!"

"It's the only feather I DON'T have in my already-well-plumed hat."

[nc4bo]

6. Sounds like kids at the playground fighting over who's next to go down the sliding board.

Could be.....

He definitely behaves a school yard bully and common brat.

[CoffeeCat]

9. Right...

...as if being President is just another trophy. He has no respect for the office, and he sure as frick doesn't care about "We The People." He has disdain for us. He spent his life firing us and making money off of our misery.

Being President is just another jewel in his crown. He's entitled, you know. He's accumulated so much wealth that it's just not as exciting as it used to be. He was governor, but that was just a small state. He must continue to climb up that ladder.

He's a real ass.

[theinquisitivechad]

7. Zero-sum game mentality.

You are right, he does have this mind-set. It may stem from sociopathy, but I think it stems in equal measure from his history in the corporate world, where you have to slice out the legs from underneath your competitor to stay ahead.

I also think that he is driven by the Reagan-era ethos that if you give businesses every license to do whatever they want, wealth will trickle down. We know this not to be true.

[CoffeeCat]

8. Exactly. Exactly the mentality.

I grew up in an arch-conservative home. My "father" was a psychopath. I could tell stories that would chill your bones, including the time that we were at a swanky engagement party when I was a teenager--and he turned to me and chided, "I think I hear a homeless person scratching at the window. Since you care about that sort of thing, you might want to bring them a plate of this delicious food."

Of course, there was no homeless person. He was just being his usual hilarious self.

I kid you not. And this was one of the more subdued of his comments. I have heard it all, let me tell you. I could write a book and I probably will.

As far as money and wealth, he once told me that after a while, it's not about the money. It's about keeping score. The money becomes a number, and all you want to do is make that "score" bigger.

Your comments reminded me of that comment my "father" said.

[VPStoltz]

13. Sounds like the woman WOMAN I heard on the radio...

It forever cemented my thinking on cons.
The conversations was about government programs and free and reduced breakfast for school kids was up.
"Why should I pay for someone else's kid to eat?"
A WOMAN..................................................! said this.

[tomm2thumbs]

10. Romney collects 'Trophy Jobs' - Olympics in his own Utah a case in point

I'm guessing this is another 'Trophy' he wants to put in his case, to answer to a father who may have led him to believe he wasn't good enough... while along the way gaining a means to impress himself, as there is little else to impress others in his personality, judgment or genuine personal compass.

The way he vacillates between one side to another, almost with the measured precision of a swinging cuckoo clock pendulum, first one way, then the entirely opposite, implies to me that he has no sense of self determination. No compass. No moral center. No core. He is adrift, and my guess is that his father felt the same about his son, and did not approve of his lack of drive, perhaps indirectly, but no doubt by how he treated him at some point.

His only way to attempt to achieve some sense of self-worth he lacked in the eyes of his father is to do something he father was unable to do. A sense of trumping his father is his only way out.

Unfortunately, most of America can see through this tragic play, and smell the smallness of his desires to become president for what they are. Selfish. Entitled. Ego-driven.

[ewagner]

19. good points...

especially:

His only way to attempt to achieve some sense of self-worth he lacked in the eyes of his father is to do something he father was unable to do. A sense of trumping his father is his only way out.

Did you notice also that George W. Bush wanted to "avenge" his father's one-term presidency? What is this with Republicans and their fathers?

[tomm2thumbs]

30. something in their upbringing turns them into damaged goods

and instead of trying to fix the problem, they continue to deny, deny, deny -- which only makes them boil over much more down the line

one sad, pitiful unholy mess

[icarusxat]

11. There is more than most people are being told

He sees himself as the "one" who will fulfill Mormon prophecy proving once and for all that his church is true. Better known as the "White Horse Prophecy"
http://www.lds.net/forums/lds-gospel-discussion/15663-constitution-hanging-thread.html

[HughBeaumont]

14. A veiled theocracy run from Salt Lake City. Great.

Reason #232 not to vote for the huckster known as Dubya Mitt.

[VPStoltz]

12. In other words, he's just JEALOUS.

[pasto76]

16. sociopathy and psychopathy are more prevalent than you all think

in the corporate world, it is a rewarded behavior. read up on what it is, and truly ponder who you know that is a psychopath

[starroute]

18. I've seen this sort of thing on those "storage locker" reality shows

My husband has an intermittent fondness for reality shows -- and this year's big thing seems to be programs following people who buy up the contents of abandoned storage lockers at auction in search of valuable or at least re-salable items.

Some of the bidders will just try to get lockers that look good to them at a price they can afford. Some will throw in a few bids on a locker they don't really want to get the ultimate winner to pay a few hundred dollars more, in the expectation that this will make it easier for them to get a locker they do want later in the day.

But there are a couple of these guys who regularly bid up every locker just for the pleasure of being nasty, and will tell the show's crew at the end of the day, "I didn't buy any lockers myself, but I made everybody else spend more of their money, and that made it all worth it."

So this isn't just an affliction of the rich. It can be some guy who sells used bedroom furniture for a living being happy about dicking other people out of a few hundred dollars -- even at no profit to himself. But I think that in the case of someone like Romney, it becomes particularly pathological.

Much like the storage locker people, Romney spent years buying second-hand companies, extracting the useful parts and trashing the rest. And even though he eventually got bored with the nuts-and-bolts of the business and retired, he still feels lonely and unfulfilled without the thrill of dicking other people around.

[JDPriestly]

21. Yes.

"Much like the storage locker people, Romney spent years buying second-hand companies, extracting the useful parts and trashing the rest. And even though he eventually got bored with the nuts-and-bolts of the business and retired, he still feels lonely and unfulfilled without the thrill of dicking other people around."

[surrealAmerican]

22. It's more than that.

If the poor have the basics in life (food, housing, health care), they are not going to act like your servants in order to eat your scraps. It's a dangerous game though, since the starving peasants could revolt if they see that they have nothing to lose.

[tblue37]

24. Concerning this point, I often quote the sociopathic wealthy businessman

(played by Robert Vaughan) who was the villain in Superman III. He says, "It is not enough that I succeed; everyone else must fail."

[Scuba]

25. I found a prime motivation among Scott Walker supporters was that he had punished those ...

... who his supporters had been taught to hate - teachers and other public workers, union members and the most horrible of all, the 'takers'.

[patrice]

26. Many have sacrificed a lot of their own humanity to their wealth & now can't "unjustify"

what they've done to themselves and others in the name of money.

They aren't free enough "... to all of the muffled and dumb creatures of the world's full reserves, the unsayable sums, joyfully add yourself and cancel the count." (R.M. Rilke)

They aren't free enough to change their own assumptions and just do something else.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. kick

[applegrove]

28. Sociopaths are obsessed with making and seeing their victims fall.

Last edited Mon Sep 3, 2012, 11:46 PM - Edit history (1)

[HughBeaumont]

29. Hee hee hee hee . . .. especially THIS ONE!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/mitt-romney-speech_n_1848806.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=1258502,b=facebook

Despite saying he wishes "President Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed" in his GOP convention speech, Mitt Romney hasn't always felt that way.

Just after Obama was inaugurated, Romney explicitly said he wanted the president to fail:

I want liberal policies to fail. I want him to fail in trying to put in place a health care plan that takes away the private sector from health care. I want him to fail in this cap and trade program as long as China and Brazil and Indonesia are not going to play in it. But I want him to succeed as a president, meaning, I want him to succeed in strengthening our economy, keeping us free, bringing our troops home in success from Iraq and Afghanistan. But I don't want his liberal policies to succeed.

The remark, made in an interview with CNN's Larry King on March 19, 2009, was unearthed by MSNBC's "Up w/Chris Hayes" and aired during his Saturday show.

With many voters claiming to feel an emotional attachment to Obama, Romney tried to downplay the "excitement" of the president's 2008 campaign during his RNC speech.