President Obama said he wanted to sit down with Mitt Romney...

[CoffeeCat]

Do you think it's possible that President Obama will ask him to be Secretary of Business?

Don't laugh. I think it's possible.

[polichick]

1. That would make me vomit - literally...

I hope he doesn't do anything stupid like that this time around.

[Bucky]

9. No, only metaphorically.

[polichick]

30. If I'm lucky :)

[CoffeeCat]

10. I'm wondering...

...because, I think that if we want to get things done--we have to come together.

I think it would be a huge gesture, an unprecedented olive branch. Romney would be working for the President, so Romney wouldn't be able to go rogue. Maybe the President could harness his business brain and his organizational skills.

I detested Romney more than the next guy, but there is no doubt that this guy has some business and organization skills. Maybe Obama could point him in the right direction.

I think it would be a bold move. I am sick and tired of partisanship. I am sick of the division. Someone has to be the better person. I think the partisanship drives President Obama crazy, which is why he steps away from it and avoids confrontation when the Republicans behave like fools. Instead of trying to fight, maybe he could build some amazing bridges that would be a lesson for all of us.

I'm was flipping channels and I watched Fox News for five minutes. Truly, I just don't think I can take the pathological division and bullying. Someone has to lead us out of this.

[aletier_v]

14. Plenty of better republicans than Romney. He's a looter, not a businessman.

[geardaddy]

29. This ^

[CoffeeCat]

41. You know how hackers end up using their skills....

....for the common good.

I see it as that kind of a situation.

I think Romney is a victim of his own political aspirations. He's had to morph himself into so many things, to get elected. He's been a moderate most of his life--admitting that climate change was real and man made; being pro choice and spearheading healthcare reform in his state.

The sad truth is, Romney is probably a fairly moderate and reasonable guy. He was a total jackass during the campaign. I gained 10 pounds in the last month, due to the stress eating that the Romney/Ryan ticket inflicted on me.

I think Romney could be saved. Paul Ryan...absolutely not. I think Romney is an astute business man who is really a moderate--who could possibly do some good. And he could be instrumental in Obama's efforts to lead this nation out of a pretty dark place.

It's just an idea. I know it's not perfect. Maybe it's too soon after the election to float this balloon. I do think we all need some time to heal and recover from the dirty tricks and lies from the other side.

[jeff47]

51. That requires nobility on the part of the person changing sides.

Romney has no such nobility.

(And, FYI, said "hackers" usually end up in jail after a little while. They revert to their old ways.)

[amandabeech]

18. Rmoney is for starving companies of operating cash and then outsourcing their product to China.

That's NOT what needs to be done, and if the President thinks that's the answer, I'm sorry that I voted for him instead of writing in Sen. Bernie Sanders.

[CoffeeCat]

23. You're right...Romney has been a vulture capitalist...

...and he was very successful at it.

Maybe Romney would be open to doing the right thing--and directing his talents and business brain toward the common good.

I know it's not the same situation--but when Obama made Hillary Secretary of State it unified our party and healed wounds.

Our nation is divided--to the point that we aren't even speaking the same language any more. People "defriend" neighbors, colleagues, family members and friends--because they don't like their politics. We watch different television channels and we eat different chicken! It's getting ridiculous.

I say, bold moves--that allow Obama to stay true to his goals for this nation--but do some of the healing work that desperately needs to get done.

[polichick]

25. Never trust sociopaths to be decent...

That's the mistake the President made last time around.

[CoffeeCat]

42. I agree that Bohner, McConnell and the rest of the hacks in Congress...

...have been sociopathic jerks who put their own partisan vendettas before the good of the country.

However, if someone is in your cabinet--the deal is that you agree to put on your big-boy pants and behave like an adult.

Of course this idea would only work if Romney and Obama found common ground, healed from the campaign and were able to build trust.

Pie in the sky? Maybe.

I just cannot take the disharmony. Democrats do big things. Look at JFK. Look at FDR. Our nation has never been so divided. We can't go on like this. Someone has to make the first move. Why not us?

[polichick]

48. Don't you remember Pres. Obama reaching out his hand...

...and getting slapped every time?! He's made "the first move" over and over again.

The President has to play hardball now. For the good of the country and our children, he has to stand strong and negotiate like he has a mandate - because he does.

[jmowreader]

36. Romney doesn't have a business brain

Romney is the corporate equivalent of a house flipper.

The first name that comes to mind is Jack Welch of GE. He makes consumer goods, business machines, heavy industrial products and military equipment. He manufactures in the U.S. and imports from all over the world. He creates jobs. Take Jack Welch, give him a board of hundreds of small business owners who meet twelve at a time on a monthly basis (so he can get advice from people who don't run conglomerates), and you'd have a good department.

[karynnj]

40. Romney is not a business brain - he headed a financial company

Look at the results of what he did. Remember that his goal was to make money for Bain PERIOD. If that meant companies that could have narrowly, unspectacularly succeeded - so what.

I also don't think Obama could offer him an Ambassadorship because he is horrible as an emissary.

He may be trying to work with Mitt as the titular head of the Republicans. He might be easier than the Congressional leaders, but I doubt the Republicans still see him as their leader. That actually is why it could work - he is appealing to Mitt's vanity. The question is whether Obama could use Mitt as the nucleus of a group of moderate Republicans. If so, it could be a win for Obama in getting things out of the rut they are in.

[madokie]

2. You're shitting me

No fucking way is Obama going to give anything to rMoney other than the red ass
He was only talking be nice last night and you can bet on that.

[Skinner]

3. Which would be funny, because there is no such position.

[BVictor1]

6. No, but it's one that's been floated.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/10/29/obama-suggests-secretary-of-business-in-a-second-term/

[Skinner]

15. Interesting. I had no idea.

[CoffeeCat]

11. Right, but Obama talked about creating a Secretary of Business (nt)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. He had better not.

That would be unsupportable.

It's one thing to talk to the man, to pick his brains. It would be quite something else to offer him a Cabinet position.

No Way.

Just hearing this makes my blood pressure rise.

[CoffeeCat]

19. I know...I understand...

I'll tell you where I'm coming from. I am so fried. I think the divisiveness and the rabid partisanship and hate that streams from the right (fueled by talk radio and Fox News) is dangerous. I don't think we can continue like this, as a nation.

I think big, bold moves have to be made to solve the big problems our nation faces. Yes, there are so many stances on which Romney is wrong. However, maybe some common ground could be found.

What I really want is for Fox News, Glenn Beck and the rest of the hate circus is to become pterodactyls and stegosauruses. I want them gone. I want their voices silenced. The only way to do that is to galvanize forces from both parties who want to work together for the common good.

Let love rule. Let compassion and bridge building rule the day. It's the only to eradicate this cancerous, sick partisanship that oozes from the right.

[bayareamike]

5. I don't.

I think that the President strongly dislikes Mitt, and with good reason.

[CoffeeCat]

26. I think that's very possible...

And it is possible--that behind the scenes--that Mitt is more dysfunctional and pathological that we know.

If so, this idea is wouldn't be possible.

[Turborama]

37. It wouldn't work because of how dysfunctional and pathological we know he is already

I get where you're coning from, but the ones who need to break the ice are them. They, after all, are the ones who have frozen the divide by drifting too far to their insane reich wing.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. Romney could be ambassador for the Cayman Islands

oops no, it's British.

let's try again - Guam!

[BlueMan Votes]

8. there's not going to be a "Secretary of Business"

so- no.

[Hamlette]

12. Make him the Secretary of Firing People

and make him live on food stamps for a month and live in a shelter with no money for a year. So he knows what its like.

[Rectangle]

35. Secretary of Lying and flip-flopping n/t

[Bucky]

13. Maybe he'll be under Secretary of Explainin' Stuff William Clinton.

Undersecretary for Makin' Shit Up W. Mitt Romeny

[DireStrike]

16. Romney would NEVER agree to it.

Think about this man's personality. He is way too fragile to accept a position under the guy that beat him. He only accepts victory.

[JoePhilly]

17. Ummm,no

[joe_sixpack]

20. Don't know why he'd sit down with him.

Romney's unemployed. After that loss, he can't be thought of as their leader. Wouldn't it be better to sit with someone who still has a role?

[JI7]

21. invite him to the whitehouse with the Family, remember the little Grandson that seemed to be taken

with Obama ?

[Canuckistanian]

22. Considering that Rmoney made fun of Obama for even suggesting a "Secretary of Business"

I'd say not.

[War Horse]

24. Figure of speech

Romney is a nobody now. It's the usual 'reach across the aisle' stuff.

[CoffeeCat]

28. I dunno about that...

I think Obama is an incredible man of honor. I don't think he would have said those words--if he didn't mean them.

I don't know what he meant though, but I do know that he means what he says. His word is gold.

[JoePhilly]

27. Obama can invite Romney in a very Public way ... and what can Mitt do??

Throw a tantrum?

Not come?

Obama can use Mitt as a PROP.

Smart move.

[CoffeeCat]

43. That is how I feel....

I think Obama can use this situation to his advantage. The country is unprecedently divided. If he could LEAD, and make Romney Secretary of Business (kind of a qwirky cabinet-position title, tho), I think it would be unprecedented, gracious and that many would see it as a good thing.

I think that being a true uniter--is low-hanging fruit--as far as scoring major, historical political points. People want consensus. They want to get along. Friction is uncomfortable, and currently the friction in politics is a 9.0 on the Richter scale.

I think many people would just like it all to stop. They could put down their swords and work together. Of course, Obama would be in the driver's seat as President, so Romney would be under his direction.

From a political standpoint--I think it could cement the Democratic party as the party of reason and sanity. We've got the country moving in our direction politically and on social issues. Why not position ourselves as the party for people who want to be rational, sane and honest? I think people are burning out on Fox News, partisan hatred and fighting.

I also think that Christie and Obama's behavior during Katrina was a great example of this. Look at how the Republicans behaved when Christie complimented the President and toured the disaster with him. They came unglued. All they could see what partisanship--completely unable to behave like functioning adults. Someone has to stop this shit. I'm just so done with it.

Our country is in an economic crisis, we've got the East Coast to clean up, we've got Israel trying to pull us into another war and we've got the fiscal cliff upon us. We need to come together.

I would NEVER suggest that a Republican do this. They are too infantile and narrow. I am suggesting that the heavy lifting and the higher thinking come from Obama and the Democratic party, because I think we're the only ones capable of it. We are the only hope to heal this nation. If we don't do it, who will?

[Whisp]

31. I think it was so he was close enough

to stick his thumb in Boner's eye.

[vaberella]

32. I think it's the Irony part of it if Romney says yes.

Apology tour and all.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

33. That won't happen. It would be a bad-faith move toward those who re-elected him

Romney has done nothing but lie and hide from his record and from his past. I wouldn't want him anywhere near a position of power in the Executive, thus my vote to reelect the President. I don't think Obama would go for that.

[louslobbs]

34. The man has no integrity and lies almost every time he opens his mouth. In order to work with

someone, you have to be able to trust them. Who would trust Romney's word on anything? The only way this man gets along, is to be in charge and surround himself with yes men....rule number 1, he's always right, and when he's wrong, refer back to rule 1.

The only people who stay employed by a person like Romney, are people who keep their mouth's shut, ignore the lies, agree with him on everything and turn away not to look when they see him doing something bad or illegal. I wouldn't trust this self serving man on anything.

Honestly, after witnessing Romney in action the past few years, other than deluded Republicans and people who work for him, would anyone here trust him?

President Obama is a special man, he tries to work with people even when they disagree with him, or have bankrolled a campaign of lies about him, or who have called him names and intimated that "he wasn't one of us." Look what trying to work with those who have lied about him, obstructed him and who have called him every name in the book, has led to with respect to those people helping him to govern for the people.

I'm glad that our President is the kind of person who forgives and moves on, but that doesn't mean he should taint himself with the stink of a Romney relationship. The Romney's are in it for themselves, they lie, they cheat and they steal. Let them go into that dark still night where millionaires and billionaires go to enjoy all of their ill gotten gains, and leave the rest of us time to rid ourselves of this nightmare foisted upon us by a the Republican Lunatic Society. I wouldn't trust him to peel an onion and as my grandmother used to say, "Romney couldn't shine Obama"s shoes."
Lou

[one_voice]

38. Maybe he just wants to tell him if he....

every disrespects him again he'll put his foot up his ass. Well I can dream can't I.

Since Robme knows the tax code well enough to cheat so well, maybe he wants to pick his brain on where to raise, cut, etc.

[demo dutch]

39. Don't laugh some astrologer predicted that one

[forestpath]

44. The thought of Romney having a say in ANYTHING government-related makes my blood run cold!

[lonestarnot]

45. Yeah sit down with that clown. What bullshit is that. I heard him. Why sit with a Mittwitt who

lies? Soley for entertainment purposes or was that just something to say? Maybe Mr. President is going to ask him to show him his tax returns.

[MineralMan]

46. No. He's going to offer him some White House beer and

tell him to lighten up a little.

[undeterred]

47. Romney is a patronizing asshole who has nothing to offer this country.

He could be secretary of patronizing assholes, if we needed one... but those are easy to find.

[JTFrog]

49. Not after Romney and Ryan ridiculed him for the suggestion.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/paul-ryan-hits-the-president-on-secretary-of-business/

GREELEY, Colo. — Today both GOP contenders were mocking President Obama’s suggestion, made in an MSNBC interview earlier in the week, to create a “Secretary of Business.” In the battleground state of Colorado, Ryan told a crowd of 1,000 assembled in the parking lot of an events center that the president “can’t run on the broken promises,” but that “he did come up with a new idea the other day.”

“He wants to create a new ‘secretary of business,’” Ryan said. “We already have a secretary of business. It’s actually called secretary of commerce. That’s what this agency does. Let me ask you a question: Can anybody name our current secretary of commerce? You know why? We don’t have one! It’s been vacant for over four months … we don’t need another bureaucrat or another bureaucracy, we need another president.”
----------
In Roanoke, Va., earlier today Romney went after the president, saying, ”I don’t think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street.”

“We don’t need a secretary of business to understand business, we need a president who understands business and I do!” Romney said

.

[Marrah_G]

50. That would probably make me walk away from politics forever.