It appears that the Times allows anyone to write a column these days. I'd be happy to write one, too, with my experience and background. I know I can score higher on the fact meter; and if I quote the founding fathers or historical documents to support my opinions, I can keep them in the context in which they were written and intended. It would of course end up on the left side.

You have to love the "no comments" from the Tennessee Republican legislators, the governor, Corker, and Fleischmann on DeJarlais. Such fine, upstanding public servants who sell their souls when it comes to harboring one of their own to protect a vote in Congress for "family values and morality." Makes one want to take a shower. It's no wonder Obama handily won the election with "gifts" like DeJarlais and his supporters.

Here's how it will go. The Republican Party will jetison the Tea Party to remain a viable party. Write it down.

The Koch Brothers, Trump, Adelson, Norquist, Rove, Peterffy, the activist Supreme Court...All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Romney and Ryan back together again.

joneses: With a boss/owner like you, your 38 would probably be better off on unemploymentand looking for better jobs with someone who really cares.

I'm saying that communism is a top-down form of government where the government is in totalitarian control, and the the people work for the state. Socialism comes from the lower to middle classes--the workers. What that means is that Peterffy labored under oppression, and not socialism which you find in Europe and yes as the Free Press stated in some of our programs in the U.S. Believe it or not rolando, we have a hybrid of democracy and socialism; and no doubt you have benefited from both at some time or another in your life. All those who scream "SOCIALISM" and that it can't or shouldn't happen here don't understand this country. You can dig up 1912 or FDR, or whatever, but this country uses whatever form of government that is needed to support our people regardless of who they are, how much money they have, whether they believe in God or not, etc. Whatever it takes.

Rickeroo is right on the mark. Peterffy was a former architect in Hungary. He lived annd worked under Communist regimes, not Socialism. So he came to America and now owns and runs an online brokerage firm(s). So he went from actually creating and producinng something with his architectural expertise to using other peoples' money to make money. Not much job creation there. He is now estimated to be worth between $4.5-$9 billion. Good for him. It didn't take him long to grasp the Capitalistic system. Only under the Citizens United disaster caused by powerful and wealthy Republicans and the Supreme Court could a man like Peterffy spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for primetime ads to obfuscate the truth about why he thinks Republicans are so much better for America. All those sad pictures of his homeland and his kindly rhetoric about "creeping socialism" is just another ruse. I wish I had the money to post TV ads to counter his positions, but alas, I'm just a middle-class person worried about how I can hold on to what I've struggled to earn, how I can put my child through college, and pay for healthcare. Still I do understand completely why someone who is in the financial industry fears regulation (or Socialism as he would wrongly prefer to call it) after the industry's capability to fleece Americans and redistribute middle-class wealth to that top 1%.

And of course the Republicans and their incredible facade to be all things to all people by embracing the tea party and conservative extremists had nothing to do with where this country's "mess" is now. They've been so cooperative the past four years in the House and Senate, and they are preparing to push this country over the "fiscal cliff" again on December 31st. Ms. Smith is just another obstacle and ideologue who will continue to preach obstructionism until our government and nation stalls completely. And to use Lincoln's history as some supporting point is ludicrous. In fact, Lincoln was one Republican who knew how important it was to get consensus among political adversaries by working together no matter how difficult it wss in the 1860s. That kind of crossing of aisles is nowhere to be found in today's Republican or Libertarian parties. Lincoln is the last person Republicans and conservatives should try to co-op.

Romney is a businessman--CEO of Bain Capital. The business he was in and still is was not one of manufacturing or producing anything except wealth for himself and his backers. It seems success today is using other peoples' money to make more money. That does not translate into jobs or expansion of small businnesses that hire approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce. Certainly a government is not a business and can't be run as one. A president is not a CEO. There are three branches of government in America always considered as checks and balances. Romney's business success is only one small portion of what a president needs to guide this country. He appears to be lacking in many other aspects.

A vote for Romney is a vote for....................? Nobody on this blog has a clue. Not even Romney knows what Romney's for except he wants the biggest CEO job of his life. But government is not or never will be a "business." It was never formed to work that way from the beginning. Unless you want to completely rewrite the Constitution. No one would do that for someone like Romney.