It's been somewhat of a head-scratcher here on Newsvine as to why some Americans stated their intention of voting for Willard Mitt Romney for President of the United States. 

I don't think I need to recite the litany of why heads are being scratched.  We all know the color of Mitt's character and it's not a pretty shade. 

The main reason folks have been head-scratching is because after all the revelations, gaffes, half-truths, flat out lies, and speculation, he still has avid, loyal supporters who don't think he did anything wrong or unethical in this campaign and pretty much are voting for him because of ABO Syndrome (Anyone But Obama). 

They loathe the incumbent so much that they're willing to not just overlook Romneyshambles, but defend it, despite what that could mean not just for the United States of America, but the world.  The rest of civilization has its fingers crossed in hopes we're smart enough to retain the incumbent, President Barack Obama.  

They fear Romney's sabre-rattling and another protracted Middle Eastern *war* that could lead to World War III.  He was laughed at on his *campaign world tour* to England, Israel, and Poland for FIMD (Foot In Mouth Disease), and he angered a lot of our allies doing it.  Just yesterday the Italian papers were screaming in protest that Paul Ryan, Romney's erstwhile FBW (Financial Boy Wonder), gave a speech where he said electing Obama would make the US end up like those socialist countries in Europe, and mentioned Italy by name.  Evidently FIMD is contagious.

But I didn't talk to any socialist Europeans today.  I simply went to a doctor's appointment.  A young man who works there and looks to be in his very early twenties came in to do the blood pressure thing.  He's friendly and chatty and asked me if I had voted yet.  I told him I was doing it on the way home.  He inquired if I was going to vote for Obama.  None of his business, really, but I said yes.

He wanted to know why.  Apparently I caught a touch of ABR Syndrome (oh, figure it out) as I blurted out, "Romney's clearly insane and unfit for the office".

"Why do you think that?" he asked.

So I mentioned a few things that I wont bore you with, because, as I said above, we all know what's been going on.  When I finished (that BP reading was probably useless because you're not supposed to gab through those), he began putting the equipment tidily away and said he had voted for Romney.  So tit for tat, I asked him why he had done so.

"Well, it's the economy," he said earnestly.  "We haven't really made any strides toward recovery."

I pointed out that what took eight years to screw up was a little tough to repair in just four years, and that we had made some gains in various areas.  By now he's all done with what he's supposed to do and is just leaning against the door jamb so that he can wax fervently on the subject.

"People who have graduated from college in the last few years can't get a job around here." he went on.  Now, it is true that this is the Rust Belt and nothing ever trickled down here to replace the collapse of Big Steel in the Reagan era, but he wasn't talking blue-collar jobs.  He continued, "They've spent, like, thirty, forty thousand on an education, have student loans to contend with, and they're not going to want to work for..."

Now, I thought he was going to say minimum wage, or retailers, or fast food, or temp agencies, or even ten dollars an hour.  The kind of jobs that aren't a career and don't pay enough to live on and never come with health care insurance of full-time hours.  But he surprised me.

"...thirty or forty thousand a year," he said.  "They have college degrees that cost that much!  They expect to start at maybe seventy-five, eighty thousand with a degree.  They're not going to take jobs that pay half that.  It's not worth it to work for chump change."

I only just stopped my gobsmacked mouth from falling open to about the size of the Merrimac Caverns when he said that.

Are you kidding me?  $30-40K is *chump change* to these kids?

I'm showing my age for sure, but when *I* graduated from college, ten dollars an hour was decent money...a guy I dated in college made that, working only part-time, and he was able to buy a two-family house at the end of his junior year and rent out the upstairs to cover his mortgage....and thirty thousand was more than sufficient to buy a house and a couple of cars and raise a few kids on that wage.  That kind of money was solid upper middle class.

Yes, certainly, the cost of living has risen astronomically since those trickle-down days began.   Ten dollars an hour is chump change today, and houses in that neighborhood are going for $150K and up now instead of the $25K he paid for it at the end of the 70s.

But these kids would rather continue living at home, unemployed, because they think they should start at $75K and turn up their noses at being offered half that?  Wow.

So I said, "You know what they started teachers back in 1980?"

"Oh, well, yeah, they don't start them at much.  Maybe thirty-five thousand or so," he said dismissively.  "Forty, maybe, if you luck out and get into one of the richer suburban districts." 

Then he started to go on about how for that kind of job, such a low salary was OK because teachers get summers off and short work days and lots of holidays blah blah blah until I wanted to smack him sideways.  When will people get just how much teachers do and on their own time, and how much of the salary he said was chump change they give back to their kids and classroom supplies?  That irks me.  I did it.  He was shocked when I told him we were lucky to start at $15K in days of yore.

"Nobody would work for that!" he exclaimed.  We did.  Ask anybody.  "I'm gonna ask my mom what she started at.  She's a teacher."  That made me want to smack him more.  "Still, you should be able to come out of college and get a decent salary offer.  At least double what you spent on your education because you're stuck with student loans and then you need money to live on and have a decent car and house.  Some people I know have graduate degrees and can't find a job with a good starting salary.  Obama promised he was going to get us out of this recession and create jobs, and he didn't.  He blew his chance.  Romney knows how to manage a business and create jobs."

So there you have it, Newsviners.  Out of the mouths of babes (or know-it-all college students).  They seem to think Romney being in charge is going to get them jobs that start at a minimum of $75K and preferably higher, because he's a rich businessman who knows how to do that.

What Kool-Aid are these kids drinking?

I guess some people don't make the most of their educational opportunities.  Or engage their brains if they seriously believe that at age 21-22 they should be handed paychecks that are probably twice the size of their parents'.

What do we think of this?

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WARNING:  The correct names for the two major political parties are Democrats and Republicans.  You can shorten it to Dems or Repubs or Ds  and Rs, but if I see mudslinging like libbietards or Rethugs, etc, your comment will be deleted.  If you can't use the correct words like grownups, then you don't need to leave a comment here, move along.

My column, my rules.  Don't like it, don't post.

And I'll be shutting off comments when I nod out because I'm not waking up to babies must play in some thugtard slapfight.  Look, I must be flying under the radar of the mudslinging bunch!  Hmmm.  Let's gamble recklessly and not turn off comments till I wander back over.  Enoch will be in charge of security in my absence and will whack you with a gefilte fish if there's misbehavior ;-)  If that's not a big enough threat....I'll get bore-head to blow his giant conch shell in your ear :P

It's sad that I have to issue a warning to supposed adults.  BEHAVE.

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PS> As of right now, the Electoral College looks like this: Obama 303, Romney 203 [updated] 

This isn't going to be called anytime soon as the swing states aren't in yet (plus the monkey business that's been going on), so you may as well go to bed. 

After you've left delightful and insightful discussion here, of course ;-)

PS> So, let's call it already!

PS> Duly called, 4 more 4 44! :-D