Romney to slam Trump in speech

[KobeOwnsDuncan]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/mitt-romney-trump-speech-220167

:lol GOP implosion

[hater]

:lmao Romney. One of the biggest losers in history talking about what it takes to win :lol

He lost vs a Kenyan :lol

Hilarious shit. First they dust off the corpse that is Barbra Bush(not to mention her retarded offspring) and now Romney :lol

Methinks Cheney, Rummy and Condolezza will be paraded next :lol

They can't stop the Movement

[hater]

Donald will go whack a mole on all these mofos :lol

[boutons_deux]

If Trump is the question, is Romney the answer?

The remarks are scheduled to begin at 11:30 ET, as part of an appearance at the Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum at the University of Utah.

By all accounts, Romney will not announce an endorsement at the event, nor will he kick off a campaign of his own. And while we can’t rule out the possibility of a surprise, the expectation is that the former governor will praise Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich, while condemning Trump as a “fraud” and a “phony,” escalating their simmering feud.

It’s hard to imagine a better gift to the Trump campaign. As New York’s Frank Rich asked (https://twitter.com/frankrichny/status/705183118332993537) overnight, in reference to Romney’s scheduled event, “Could there be a more incendiary red cape to wave before the GOP base and further boost Trump?”

Nope. The former Massachusetts governor is a perfect representation of what Trump is running against in 2016.

Indeed, Trump should be thrilled by today’s rebuke – the quintessential, elite party insider, following two failed presidential campaigns, and speaking on behalf of the party’s powerful donor class, wants Republicans to reject their current frontrunner.

It’s as if Romney is deliberately trying to make things easier on his target.

Complicating matters, of course, is the fact that Romney seemed awfully eager to receive and celebrate Trump’s endorsement four years ago, despite Trump’s racist antics at the time. It’s difficult to take Romney seriously when he says Trump is a dangerous charlatan, since it was just one cycle ago that Romney stood alongside Trump to tout his support.

But these details notwithstanding, what Romney and Republicans like him still don’t understand is that conventional attacks don’t work against an unconventional candidate.

In theory, having a party’s most recent nominee condemn the party’s frontrunner would be devastating, but in 2016, in Republican politics, it’s practically a favor.

Much of the GOP base sees Romney as a loser representing an establishment in need of replacement, not a wise leader whose advice has real value.

Finally, if Romney is so concerned about Trump’s likely nomination, why doesn’t the former candidate go all in, throwing his support to one of the other candidates, helping his choice raise money, and hitting the campaign trail on his behalf? It probably has something to do with the fact that if the Republican race is decided at the convention, Romney wants to maintain his viability as a possible candidate himself.

It’s the kind of thinking that led Slate’s Isaac Chotiner to conclude (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/03/mitt_romney_can_t_save_the_gop_from_trump.html), “Romney is less a cure for the GOP’s problems than a symptom of what ails the party.”

Don’t be surprised if Trump spends the next several weeks bragging about Romney’s opposition to his candidacy.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/if-trump-the-question-romney-the-answer?cid=sm_fb_maddow

[Splits]

How stupid is this GOP "establishment"? If they can't fucking see that this will do nothing but help Trump then they deserve the implosion that is going to occur in Cleveland this summer.

[Reck]

How stupid is this GOP "establishment"? If they can't fucking see that this will do nothing but help Trump then they deserve the implosion that is going to occur in Cleveland this summer.

They're all in. At this point, they don't care as long as they take down Trump with them.

[DarrinS]

This won't go well. Romney is part of what created Trumptards.

[Koolaid_Man]

:lmao Romney. One of the biggest losers in history talking about what it takes to win :lol

He lost vs a Kenyan :lol

Hilarious shit. First they dust off the corpse that is Barbra Bush(not to mention her retarded offspring) and now Romney :lol

Methinks Cheney, Rummy and Condolezza will be paraded next :lol

They can't stop the Movement


In many circles around the country he and Mcain took heat for going #1 and #2 in losing to a nigga tbh.....

[DarrinS]

In many circles around the country he and Mcain took heat for going #1 and #2 in losing to a Dem. tbh.....

FIFY

[boutons_deux]

FIFY

nope, you racist rightwingnuts HATE the WH n!gg@ because he represents the decline of Euro-American white male privilege, the decline white supremacy.

[DarrinS]

nope, you racist rightwingnuts HATE the WH n!gg@ because he represents the decline of Euro-American white male privilege, the decline white supremacy.

Why do we hate Hillary and Bernie?

[boutons_deux]

Why do we hate Hillary and Bernie?

we? you rightwingnut gun-fellatin, racist, xenophobic, shit kickin, misogynistic assholes?

why? because you're ignorant, thinking Repugs are gonna do anything for the 99%, and Hillary/Bernie will hurt you.

[DarrinS]

we? you rightwingnut gun-fellatin, racist, xenophobic, shit kickin, misogynistic assholes?

why? because you're ignorant, thinking Repugs are gonna do anything for the 99%, and Hillary/Bernie will hurt you.



Bless your little heart

[DMX7]

What are you doing, Mitt? After Donald endorsed you in 2012, this is how you repay him? This is what's wrong with the GOP! Horrible!

[Reck]

He's unloading on Trump. :wow
hater and more to come later tonight so get that ass ready with lube. :lmao

[hater]

:lmao too little too late :lol

:lol GOP trying to do something at the 11th hour is so cute and laughable. It's actually pathetic.

This is Trumps party now. Get on the tank or be run over like Romney is about to :lol

[SnakeBoy]

Vicious attack by Romney, fortunately for Trump, Mitt Romney has given a perfect response to Mitt Romney


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhLT5GZcD8

Trump should come out tonight and say it's time to listen to the voters and the voters want Trump #1 and Cruz #2...and say he will offer the VP slot to Cruz when he wins. Then we can sit back and watch the GOP establishment completely lose their minds.

[ChumpDumper]

Trump endorsed Romney?

lol

[clambake]

lets see if there's any power in "magic underwear"

[boutons_deux]

lets see if there's any power in "magic underwear"

I think they can only change Mormon underwear once a week, on Sundays.

[hater]

:lol trump about to speak :lol

This shit gon b gud

[hater]

Christie taking a shit on the haters :lol saying he will go on the road with trump whenever he wants to. :lol

GOAT

[ElNono]

:lol Trump needs to start a new show: The biggest Romney...

[DMX7]

Christie taking a shit on the haters :lol saying he will go on the road with trump whenever he wants to. :lol

GOAT

He's a big boy! He does what he wants! Nobody is going to tell him what to do!

By the way, Trump is about to speak. Oh boy, he isn't going to hold back!!!

[InRareForm]

Let's not forget Romney had some mud he played in. As well in 2012

[DMX7]

"I could have said 'Mitt, drop to your knees', and he would have dropped to his knees". :lol

-Trump on Romney begging for his endorsement

[Reck]

Trump is so full of shit. I'm beating Hillary in the polls. :lmao :lmao

same old recycle shit. Rubio is a choke artist, he almost fainted, blah blah.

Now Mitt is also a choke artist. :lol

Get new material dude.

[Reck]

Also, he keeps getting interrupted by protesters. :lmao

Hes going to lose Maine to Cruz.

[DMX7]

Another scum protester. Take his jacket!

[clambake]

pretty long. what if he loses his voice before debate?

[SpursforSix]

nope, you racist rightwingnuts HATE the WH n!gg@ because he represents the decline of Euro-American white male privilege, the decline white supremacy.

95% of the dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his color.

[hater]

Trump went medieval on dat ass :lol

[101A]

95% of the dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his color.

Meaning you're 5% pure racist?

(and I certainly don't think Obama has been a good president)

[hater]

:lol Romney looking like a scumbag when CNN plays his comments on Trump in 2012 :lol

Holy shit this coming back to haunt him :lol

[InRareForm]

Romney reaches a new low.

[KobeOwnsDuncan]

95% of the dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his color.
Is that why congress promised to block his every move before he took office?

[Chinook]

Romney reaches a new low.

He's like a pancake, he's flipfloppity.

http://static2.fjcdn.com/comments/And+you+moneybags+you+re+a+pancake+you+re+flip+flo ppity+_898fa4dbe5b652c15e9f53f48b6f01fe.jpg

[IceColdBrewski]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U&feature=youtu.be

[rmt]

So does this mean that Cruz and Kasich won't campaign in Florida. And that Rubio and Cruz won't campaign in Ohio. To give the best chance for Rubio and Kasich to win in their home state.

[SpursforSix]

Meaning you're 5% pure racist?

(and I certainly don't think Obama has been a good president)

No. I didn't vote for him but sure didn't care what color he was. When he was elected, I had hope that he would do a great job. But he hasn't imo.

[SpursforSix]

Is that why congress promised to block his every move before he took office?

I don't think it had anything to do with his color.

[boutons_deux]

I don't think it had anything to do with his color.

:lol

[RandomGuy]

95% of the dislike for Obama has nothing to do with his color.

95% of all statistics are pulled out of thin air.

[SpursforSix]

95% of all statistics are pulled out of thin air.

You're right. But I don't think congress blocking his moves had as much to do with his color as it did with his party and ideology.

[boutons_deux]

At Secretive Meeting, Tech CEOs And Top Republicans Commiserate, Plot To Stop Trump

Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering.

The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), who recently made news by saying (https://www.facebook.com/sassefornebraska/posts/561073597391141) he "cannot support Donald Trump."

Along with Ryan, the House was represented by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (Mich.), Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) and almost-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), sources said, along with leadership figure Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Diane Black (Tenn.).

Philip Anschutz (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/16/the-man-who-owns-l-a), the billionaire GOP donor whose company owns a stake in Sea Island, was also there, along with Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who represents Maryland. Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, was there, too, a Times spokeswoman confirmed. A Politico spokesman refused to say whether publisher Robert Allbritton attended. Allbritton was on a list of people scheduled to attend last year's conference.

"A specter was haunting the World Forum--the specter of Donald Trump," Kristol wrote in an emailed report from the conference, borrowing the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto. "There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he's done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated."

"The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him," Kristol wrote. "In general, there's a little too much hand-wringing, brow-furrowing, and fatalism out there and not quite enough resolving to save the party from nominating or the country electing someone who simply shouldn't be president."

A highlight of the gathering was a presentation by Rove about focus group findings on Trump. The business mogul's greatest weakness, according to Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as "presidential" and as somebody their children should look up to. They also see him as somebody who can be erratic and shouldn't have his (small) fingers (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-graydon-carter-fingers_us_561574b8e4b0fad1591a8beb) anywhere near a nuclear trigger.

Sources familiar with the meeting -- who requested anonymity because the forum is off the record -- said that much of the conversation around Trump centered on "how this happened, rather than how are we going to stop him," as one person put it.

Trump, who already has nearly one-third of the delegates he needs to secure the GOP nomination, faces major tests in the Florida and Ohio primaries next week. If he wins both those states, he will need to win just half of the remaining delegates (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/delegate-math-what-happens-if-trump-wins-ohio-and-florida-loses-both-or-splits/article/2585127) to secure the nomination.
He wasn't the only topic of the wide-ranging conference, however. At one point, Cotton and Apple's Cook fiercely debated cell phone encryption, a source familiar with the exchange told HuffPost. "Cotton was pretty harsh on Cook," the source said, and "everyone was a little uncomfortable about how hostile Cotton was." (Apple is in the midst (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-apple-san-bernadino_us_56c7755de4b0928f5a6bcd29) of a battle with the Justice Department and the FBI over an encrypted iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters.)

AEI has held the annual forum on Sea Island for years. It's so secret that in 2015, Bloomberg News complained that no one would even say whether it had snowed (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update).

Federal Aviation Administration records available on FlightAware.com show that a fleet of private jets flew into and out of two small airports near Sea Island this weekend. Fifty-four planes flew out of the airport on St. Simons Island, Georgia, on Sunday -- nearly four times as many as departed from the airport the previous Sunday.

Many of the planes are registered to jet-sharing companies such as NetJets and Flexjet or private jet services companies such as Jetsetter. At least two of them flew (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/JAS432/history/20160306/1515Z/KBQK/KSJC)directly (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/EJA377/history/20160306/1600Z/KSSI/KSJC) to San Jose, California, home of many tech giants, on Sunday.

Another plane, which arrived (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N694ES/history) from Eaton, Colorado, on Wednesday and flew back there on Sunday, is registered (https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N694ES) to Monfort Aviation, LLC, a private, tax-exempt trust.FAA records don't indicate who controls Monfort Aviation, but it shares a name with Dick and Charlie Monfort, the Colorado-based heirs to a meatpacking fortune who now own the Colorado Rockies baseball team. The plane, a Raytheon Hawker 800XP, seats 15 people. Anschutz, the billionaire whose company part owns Sea Island, is also from Colorado.

Another private plane, a Canadair Challenger, flew cross-country (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/PGJ5272) from St. Simons to Van Nuys Airport in Southern California on Friday. Van Nuys Airport is so associated with millionaires and billionaires that their disputes over space at the field occasionally spill into the news media (http://www.cnbc.com/id/32675604).

Another plane, a tri-jet Dassault Falcon 900, flew into St. Simons on Thursday from Westchester County, New York, and returned on Sunday. It's registered (https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N780SP) to Northwood Investors LLC, which is run by John Kukral, whose official bio notes (http://www.northwoodinvestors.com/john_kukral.html) he's been involved in real estate deals worth over $40 billion.

"The event is private and off-the record, therefore we do not comment further on the content or attendees," said Judy Stecker, a spokeswoman for AEI. She described the forum as "an informal gathering of leading thinkers from all ideological backgrounds to discuss challenges that the United States and the free world face in economics, security and social welfare."



Former Vice President Dick Cheney participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 26th annual AEI World Forum in 2007. Conceived by former President Gerald Ford, the forum attracts political and economic leaders from around the world. Sea Island Resort -- which boasts three golf courses and a spa and fitness center that, at 65,000 square feet, would fill nearly two-thirds of a Home Depot -- is famous for its isolation. It's surrounded by marshes and some distance from the nearest large commercial airports. In 2004, when President George W. Bush hosted the annual G-8 summit on the island, the press center for the event was located 80 miles away (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/world/gathering-sea-island-scene-world-leaders-get-glimpse-america-s-high-life.html) in Savannah, Georgia.

The Anschutz Corp., Starwood Capital Group Global, Avenue Capital Group, and Oaktree Capital Management bought the then-bankrupt resort (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703794104575546881030784338)-- which covers the entire island -- in 2010 for $212.4 million.

"It is not much of a place to experience average America," The New York Timeswrote (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/world/gathering-sea-island-scene-world-leaders-get-glimpse-america-s-high-life.html) of Sea Island in 2004. "But it is a fine locale to shut out the rest of the world, view conspicuous architectural consumption and walk beaches that have little or no public access."

In 2015, AEI's Sea Island gala drew most of the men who would become the Republican party's presidential candidates, according to an agenda (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update) Bloomberg obtained at the time. Scheduled speakers included former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

(Some scheduled speakers may not have attended; a snowstorm snarled transportation up and down the East Coast that weekend.)
AEI paid $32,490.97 for 11 members of Congress to attend the conference in 2015 alone, according to disclosure records available on Legistorm.com (https://www.legistorm.com/trip/list/by/sponsor/id/4869/name/American_Enterprise_Institute.html).

Democratic officials, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jason Furman, the chair of Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Gene Sperling, another top Obama economic adviser, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, were listed as 2015 attendees, Bloomberg reported (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update) at the time.

Christie was scheduled to deliver the opening remarks at the conference that year.

A few weeks ago, he endorsed Trump.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aei-world-forum-donald-trump_us_56ddbd38e4b0ffe6f8ea125d?ir=Politics&section=us_politics&utm_campaign=030716&utm_content=FullStory&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-politics

[rmt]

At Secretive Meeting, Tech CEOs And Top Republicans Commiserate, Plot To Stop Trump

Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering.

The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), who recently made news by saying (https://www.facebook.com/sassefornebraska/posts/561073597391141) he "cannot support Donald Trump."

Along with Ryan, the House was represented by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (Mich.), Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) and almost-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), sources said, along with leadership figure Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Diane Black (Tenn.).

Philip Anschutz (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/16/the-man-who-owns-l-a), the billionaire GOP donor whose company owns a stake in Sea Island, was also there, along with Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who represents Maryland. Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, was there, too, a Times spokeswoman confirmed. A Politico spokesman refused to say whether publisher Robert Allbritton attended. Allbritton was on a list of people scheduled to attend last year's conference.

"A specter was haunting the World Forum--the specter of Donald Trump," Kristol wrote in an emailed report from the conference, borrowing the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto. "There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he's done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated."

"The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him," Kristol wrote. "In general, there's a little too much hand-wringing, brow-furrowing, and fatalism out there and not quite enough resolving to save the party from nominating or the country electing someone who simply shouldn't be president."

A highlight of the gathering was a presentation by Rove about focus group findings on Trump. The business mogul's greatest weakness, according to Rove, was that voters have a very hard time envisioning him as "presidential" and as somebody their children should look up to. They also see him as somebody who can be erratic and shouldn't have his (small) fingers (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-graydon-carter-fingers_us_561574b8e4b0fad1591a8beb) anywhere near a nuclear trigger.

Sources familiar with the meeting -- who requested anonymity because the forum is off the record -- said that much of the conversation around Trump centered on "how this happened, rather than how are we going to stop him," as one person put it.

Trump, who already has nearly one-third of the delegates he needs to secure the GOP nomination, faces major tests in the Florida and Ohio primaries next week. If he wins both those states, he will need to win just half of the remaining delegates (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/delegate-math-what-happens-if-trump-wins-ohio-and-florida-loses-both-or-splits/article/2585127) to secure the nomination.
He wasn't the only topic of the wide-ranging conference, however. At one point, Cotton and Apple's Cook fiercely debated cell phone encryption, a source familiar with the exchange told HuffPost. "Cotton was pretty harsh on Cook," the source said, and "everyone was a little uncomfortable about how hostile Cotton was." (Apple is in the midst (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-apple-san-bernadino_us_56c7755de4b0928f5a6bcd29) of a battle with the Justice Department and the FBI over an encrypted iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters.)

AEI has held the annual forum on Sea Island for years. It's so secret that in 2015, Bloomberg News complained that no one would even say whether it had snowed (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update).

Federal Aviation Administration records available on FlightAware.com show that a fleet of private jets flew into and out of two small airports near Sea Island this weekend. Fifty-four planes flew out of the airport on St. Simons Island, Georgia, on Sunday -- nearly four times as many as departed from the airport the previous Sunday.

Many of the planes are registered to jet-sharing companies such as NetJets and Flexjet or private jet services companies such as Jetsetter. At least two of them flew (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/JAS432/history/20160306/1515Z/KBQK/KSJC)directly (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/EJA377/history/20160306/1600Z/KSSI/KSJC) to San Jose, California, home of many tech giants, on Sunday.

Another plane, which arrived (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N694ES/history) from Eaton, Colorado, on Wednesday and flew back there on Sunday, is registered (https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N694ES) to Monfort Aviation, LLC, a private, tax-exempt trust.FAA records don't indicate who controls Monfort Aviation, but it shares a name with Dick and Charlie Monfort, the Colorado-based heirs to a meatpacking fortune who now own the Colorado Rockies baseball team. The plane, a Raytheon Hawker 800XP, seats 15 people. Anschutz, the billionaire whose company part owns Sea Island, is also from Colorado.

Another private plane, a Canadair Challenger, flew cross-country (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/PGJ5272) from St. Simons to Van Nuys Airport in Southern California on Friday. Van Nuys Airport is so associated with millionaires and billionaires that their disputes over space at the field occasionally spill into the news media (http://www.cnbc.com/id/32675604).

Another plane, a tri-jet Dassault Falcon 900, flew into St. Simons on Thursday from Westchester County, New York, and returned on Sunday. It's registered (https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N780SP) to Northwood Investors LLC, which is run by John Kukral, whose official bio notes (http://www.northwoodinvestors.com/john_kukral.html) he's been involved in real estate deals worth over $40 billion.

"The event is private and off-the record, therefore we do not comment further on the content or attendees," said Judy Stecker, a spokeswoman for AEI. She described the forum as "an informal gathering of leading thinkers from all ideological backgrounds to discuss challenges that the United States and the free world face in economics, security and social welfare."



Former Vice President Dick Cheney participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 26th annual AEI World Forum in 2007. Conceived by former President Gerald Ford, the forum attracts political and economic leaders from around the world. Sea Island Resort -- which boasts three golf courses and a spa and fitness center that, at 65,000 square feet, would fill nearly two-thirds of a Home Depot -- is famous for its isolation. It's surrounded by marshes and some distance from the nearest large commercial airports. In 2004, when President George W. Bush hosted the annual G-8 summit on the island, the press center for the event was located 80 miles away (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/world/gathering-sea-island-scene-world-leaders-get-glimpse-america-s-high-life.html) in Savannah, Georgia.

The Anschutz Corp., Starwood Capital Group Global, Avenue Capital Group, and Oaktree Capital Management bought the then-bankrupt resort (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703794104575546881030784338)-- which covers the entire island -- in 2010 for $212.4 million.

"It is not much of a place to experience average America," The New York Timeswrote (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/world/gathering-sea-island-scene-world-leaders-get-glimpse-america-s-high-life.html) of Sea Island in 2004. "But it is a fine locale to shut out the rest of the world, view conspicuous architectural consumption and walk beaches that have little or no public access."

In 2015, AEI's Sea Island gala drew most of the men who would become the Republican party's presidential candidates, according to an agenda (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update) Bloomberg obtained at the time. Scheduled speakers included former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

(Some scheduled speakers may not have attended; a snowstorm snarled transportation up and down the East Coast that weekend.)
AEI paid $32,490.97 for 11 members of Congress to attend the conference in 2015 alone, according to disclosure records available on Legistorm.com (https://www.legistorm.com/trip/list/by/sponsor/id/4869/name/American_Enterprise_Institute.html).

Democratic officials, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jason Furman, the chair of Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Gene Sperling, another top Obama economic adviser, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, were listed as 2015 attendees, Bloomberg reported (http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-05/aei-s-world-forum-so-secretive-we-couldn-t-even-get-a-snow-update) at the time.

Christie was scheduled to deliver the opening remarks at the conference that year.

A few weeks ago, he endorsed Trump.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aei-world-forum-donald-trump_us_56ddbd38e4b0ffe6f8ea125d?ir=Politics§ion= us_politics&utm_campaign=030716&utm_content=FullStory&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-politics

Terrible. GOP establishment and tech CEOs (who want more H1-B visas) conspiring together - all out effort to stop Trump whom they can't control. If all these influential people would get together to do something MEANINGFUL, think what progress could be made - instead they just want to maintain their power.

[baseline bum]

So Mexicans shouldn't take our shitty jobs but Indians should take our good ones?

[ChumpDumper]

Terrible. GOP establishment and tech CEOs (who want more H1-B visas) conspiring together - all out effort to stop Trump whom they can't control. If all these influential people would get together to do something MEANINGFUL, think what progress could be made - instead they just want to maintain their power.Meaningful like what?

[RandomGuy]

You're right. But I don't think congress blocking his moves had as much to do with his color as it did with his party and ideology.

I would like to think that.

The problem is that the overall hysteria driving the "blocking" is being driven by dogwhistle politics. Anti-Obama hysteria fueled, in no small part, by subtle and overt racism, that drives the voters who ultimately have to elect or re-elect those doing the blocking.

The jackwagons that want to be re-elected have to vote according to the most nutty and racist of their constituents. Just ask the long-time members of congress who lost to tea-party challenges.

It isn't "I'm going to block Obama, becuase I hate negroes" It is "the hysterical people who pick me in primaries hate negroes, and view all of Obama's polcies through that filter, so therefore I am going to block"

Maher hit it on the head.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/bill-maher-roasts-gop-angst-over-trump-hes-the-result-of-their-faustian-deal-with-the-racist-devil/

[Chinook]

The Republican party has always been a very strange coalition that has involved smoke and mirrors to be maintained. And before people point to Democrats and say the same thing, it's not. You don't really have a bunch of different types of poor anymore, so their interests don't really have to conflict in the same way fiscal and moral Republicans do. And I don't consider it a good thing, as I'd like to see both parties break up and realign in coalitions that better reflect modern issues.

[boutons_deux]

like to see both parties break up and realign in coalitions that better reflect modern issues.

any new "party of the poor" will be outbid by the donor class for Congressional control.

do you still believe Human-Americans' votes matter? A Princeton study a few months ago showed they don't.

[Chinook]

Human-Americans

Da fuck kinda term is that?