Buddy Roemer struggles for attention in Presidential field
24th October 2011 · 0 Comments
By Christopher what all do i need to get a personal loan Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Did you know Buddy Roemer was running for President? Many of the protestors at the Occupy Wall Street sit-in learned it as Roemer became the first and only GOP Presidential candidate in the last three weeks to meet with the demonstrators — and compliment their willingness to stand up for their views.
Buddy Romer
Yet, at least one character has noticed his quixotic bid for the White House. The Huffington Post notes an odd donation to Buddy Roemer’s presidential campaign: His finance filings show a $25 contribution from a “Nuclear Safety Inspector” at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who lives at 742 Evergreen Terrace.
Said Roemer’s campaign manager Carlos Sierra: “Oh my God. That is too funny.”
‘DUF!!’
Roemer’s Republican opponents may have labeled the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators as cartoon characters on par with Homer Simpson, but the former Louisiana Governor refused to agree. Roemer went so far as to attack GOP conservative frontrunner Herman Cain for disparaging the anti-bank protests, tweeting: “Herman Cain’s views on Occupy Wall Street are un-American. You should apologize Herman.”
Roemer launched his presidential bid not only attacking Big Government, but the prevalence of money in politics that led to the TARP bailout and special interest deals in the wake of the economic collapse. In a GOP field that otherwise has no problem with large campaign donations (most of the frontrunners, including Herman Cain top in Des Moines IA Lower Beaver cash advance as of this week, have had friends set up SuperPACs which allow unlimited contributions), Buddy Roemer main campaign plank is to limit contributions to $100 per person. That’s also the maximum sum he will allow in contributions to his current presidential bid.
When he first announced for President, Roemer justified the campaign limits as the only way for politics to be independent of the money-machinations of Wall Street; Hence, the former LA Governor’s sympathy for the demonstrators. As Roemer explained to American Conservative Blogger Rod Dreher, “I think conservatives believe in first principles. They believe that hard work should be rewarded. They believe that this country is great because it’s been generally free.”
“And conservatives see that that’s disappearing. They see now that a big check can take the place of a big idea. They see now that the structure is not for the base, but is for the peak. It’s for the top one or two percent. They see Wall Street riddled with fraudulent documents. They see it riddled with the attitude of ‘let’s fire Americans and go overseas.’ They see it riddled with things that have had and will have bad effects on this economy.”
“We have almost permanent unemployment,” he continued. “They say it’s nine percent, but the real unemployment rate is more like 16 percent. These are people there are no jobs for, or they have to work part time to try to make ends meet. It’s disturbing. The Wall Street protest is unshaped, unfocused, but there’s a lot of power in it. We need the courage to go back to conservative principles — that is, the reward of hard work, the sense of fair play, the belief in individual strength rather than government solutions. To me, the Wall Street protests reflect all these sorts of things.”
Upon his arrival at payday loans eden prairie mn Wall Street, Roemer was greeted with a range of responses from boos to campaign donations. “They were just fascinated and pleased at the end of the day that I came to listen,” he recounted to the LSU student newspaper The Daily Reveille. “They were amazed that I was there.”
Despite a few negative reactions, Roemer commended their willingness to listen and discuss. “It brought back what was really good about America,” he said. “And I don’t think it’s going to go away.”
Occupy Wall Street began Sept. 17 upon the instigation of Canadian activist group Adbusters. The protesters have occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City since then, focusing their demonstration on the political influence and greed of corporations.
His fellow GOP candidates immediately labeled Occupy Wall Street as a strictly leftist movement. Roemer, however, disagreed. “It wasn’t about their party; it was about their concern. In every case, I met people concerned with America.”
“It’s interesting to see the silence of other [GOP candidates] because the students, the young people are so correct,” he explained. “Maybe the others just don’t have the age on them to know what can be done by young people. I’ve seen the power of young people.”
Roemer, who is 68 years old, recalled to the LSU newspaper the days of the Civil Rights Movement and the protests against the war in Vietnam as examples of large, often fractured movements enacting significant change. “What I like is that they are speaking up,” he said. “In the Vietnam protests, America said they were unpatriotic,” Roemer said. “But they stopped the war.”
According to Roemer, Herman Cain deserves his criticism, as just another politician who denounces the Occupy movement without having visited it himself. Roemer challenged each of his GOP opponents to go and see it before commenting. “Politicians are relocation loans bad credit always judged by how well they speak. I think they should be judged by how well they listen,” Roemer said. “Don’t criticize until you go listen to them.”
Still, Roemer’s populist stand that corporate campaign donations lead to political corruption, has done little to advance him in the polls. He does not even show up in the recent Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Iowa caucus-goers. Cain is in front with 28 percent followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 21 percent. Congressman Ron Paul is a distant third at 10 percent followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at nine percent, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann at eight percent, and Texas Governor Rick Perry at seven percent. The sixth place finish for Perry is a sharp decline from early September when Perry was the frontrunner both nationally and in Iowa.
Of course, visiting Wall Street is even less strange than the choice by fellow third-tier GOP candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s decision to speak to a Google+ town hall conducted by representatives of various pagan media outlets. This came just days after Johnson learned he had ranked high enough in national surveys to warrant inclusion in at least one Republican Presidential debate.
That did not stop the former New Mexico governor from speaking with members of the Pagan Newswire Collective, ModernWitch Podcast and Patheos.com, among others. He said it was important to reach out to voters that fall outside the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, and slammed his own party for being too beholden to the Christian Right. “I think the world looks down on Republicans for their socially conservative views, which includes religion in government,” Johnson said. “I think that should not play a role in any of this. When Republicans talk about values — you know what? I bet you and I have texas lending the same values.”
Despite their recent forays into rarely Republican territory, both Johnson and Roemer seemed geared to participate in the January presidential primary states. In fact, last week, Roemer, who remember doesn’t take donations of more than $100, paid the equivalent of ten donations to get on the New Hampshire ballot.
Prospective GOP candidates must pay a $1,000 filing fee to the state or, if they can’t afford that, collect 10 signatures from each of the 10 counties. For everyone else, the filing fee would be less than half of one donor. Roemer said, however, that he was undaunted by the extra work it took to earn the donations to pay for the filing—as long as his message of campaign finance reform is upheld.
“How can we make America a place we love to live in if special interests own us?’’ he told the AP. “There are a lot of issues, from immigration to jobs, from wasted foreign aid money to oil dependence on Saudi Arabia, but the number one issue in this campaign is a president free to lead.’’
Outside of his visit to New York, Roemer has spent the last three months living in Manchester and has visited nearly every college campus in the state. He told the Associate Press he loves campaigning in the state but has been disappointed that he hasn’t been asked to participate in any candidate debates here or elsewhere.
“I’m the only guy running who’s been a governor and a congressman,’’ he said. “But I’m not a baby, I’m a grown-up. I’ll take my lickin’, or I’ll get my chances.’’
So far, Roemer has not shown up, even in single digits, on New Hampshire Presidential polls either.
This article was originally published in the October 24, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
