If Romney is to stand a chance, he needs to start using a teleprompter or at least prepare a bit better. To be fair, the line “I like firing people” was taken out of context, the full speech discussed not being stuck with one particular health care provider, “firing” those who don’t offer good service. Fair enough? Mitt’s “I’m not concerned about the very poor” will be tough to recover from. Unfortunately, it leads to the conclusion that he is far from being in touch with the common man. He says the poor have a safety net. That safety net over a year’s time is about as much income as Romney makes in about an hour, give or take.

Mitch may make a good candidate after the current crop of hopefuls destroy themselves.

When asked what his tax rate is, Romney responded “15%.” No surprise, this is the rate for dividends and long term capital gains. This isn’t likely to go away, as those with money make big donations to the campaigns of the congressfolk who make these laws. Thus the old line, “Is that a congressman in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

The numbers are slowly (very slowly) starting to look a bit better. The recession ended some time ago, but are we finally going to see what looks like a real recovery?

From what I’ve read about Mitt Romney, I think he’s a good person (more on that in an upcoming post) but is he a viable candidate? This will be a tough race for the GOP.

Congress passed a two month extension of the payroll tax reduction. The withholding rate will continue to be 4.2% instead of the normal 6.2% through February 29, unless, of course, extended further.

Sticking with the Christmas theme, the Salvation Army kettle and bell ringers are ubiquitous this time of year. Time to make sure I have change to drop off. POTUS can use a bigger bell.

December appears to be the month of Holiday themed political cartoons. This one mixing in my favorite ongoing protest. Maybe all the great works can be re-written from the view of the occupiers?

Friday’s numbers for unemployment, a drop from 9% to 8.6%, may have seemed good news, but it reflects a decrease in the labor force, over 300,000 people dropping out. Did the recession really end in June 2009?

You may not know, the iconic Dali work of melting clocks is actually titled The Persistence of Memory.  This is the first I’ve seen this famous work parodied, and a nice political cartoon resulting. A bit more cerebral than the “Occupy Black Friday” images. I hope your Turkey day was a success, and your shopping, if you ventured out yesterday, fruitful.