In his victory speech tonight in New Hampshire Mitt Romney once again ridiculed the EU.Several times during his speech he called Europe's economic structure a "welfare state system". It even seems his criticism of Europe and the European life style has become a key note of his campaign. In one of his earlier speeches he said, "the European Union wants to ‘drag America down to Europe’s standards.’
Does Romney really know what he is talking about or could he have had a traumatic experience while in Europe in 1966 as a 19-year-old Mormon missionary? Romney stayed in France for two-and-a-half years through the turbulent period of the May 1968 anti-de Gaulle uprising, before returning home to start his career in business and politics. Despite Mr. Romney's tireless efforts as a Mormon missionary in Europe, his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has not caught on fire in France, where today it has only 36,000 followers among the 14 million Mormons worldwide.
Romney's anti-European attitude was also exposed when he lost the 2007 Republican nomination. At that time his campaign plan was leaked out to the Boston Globe newspaper, which expressed surprise at what they called “Romney’s French and European complex.” The Globe reported: "Enmity toward France ... is a recurring theme of the document.” The Globe also said Romney had planned to accuse potential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton of seeking to make America more like France. A campaign PowerPoint slide presentation even said “Hillary = France”.
Contrary to what Romney says and what some Republicans might like to believe -- he should know that making the U.S. more like Europe would not be such a disaster, but might even be an improvement. For starters, maybe the biggest step the U.S. could take towards a more European style society would be to adopt a European style health-care system.
Europe has a few other things it can teach Mr. Romney. Where Mr. Romney recently said he likes to fire people, he should instead look at Europe where the motto is “Protect the worker, not the job.”
During his business career Mr. Romney’s private equity firm Bain Capital routinely made money by buying struggling companies and closing down their plants — including one in Gaffney, S.C., where more than a hundred steel workers were reportedly laid off.
Granted the United States is still the number one economic and military powerhouse in the world, but the US also holds the record for having the largest deficit ( $ 14 trillion) in the world. Lets face it, the EU with its GDP of $ 17 trillion versus the US GDP of $ 15 trillion and its ultra modern infrastructure, including high-speed trains reaching every major European capital, and its alternative energy technological capabilities is not doing too bad for itself. As to some of the economic problems the EU is facing today, at least it has recognized these problems and has not shoved them under the rug.
Listening to Mr. Romney's New Hampshire victory speech tonight, Europe and the rest of the world could be in for quite a surprise when they wake up on Wednesday morning November 7, 2012 and find Mitt Romney sitting in the White House.
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