WaPo Columnist Shocks 'Inside Washington' Panel By Saying Romney's Right About Corporations Being People
It was by no means surprising when Politico's Roger Simon claimed on Friday's "Inside Washington" that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's comment concerning corporations being people "was one of his rare flubs."
But when the Washington Post's Obama-loving columnist Colby King stuck up for Romney saying, "He's actually right," it's a metaphysical certitude many unsuspecting viewers around the nation spit out whatever was in their mouths (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):
ROGER SIMON, POLITICO: He looks upon himself as a corporation. You’re going to see that in a lot of Democratic commercials. That was one of his rare flubs. Americans don’t feel right now that corporations are people just like them.
COLBY KING, WASHINGTON POST: Look, his opponents are going to play this for laughs, but it is not funny. He’s actually right. And I’ll tell you why he’s right. Because he knows that corporations are not just some faceless entity. People own corporations. Those people who own corporations are called shareholders. These are individuals who make investments and they expect to get a return on their investments if the company makes profits. Those corporations are run by people, large numbers of people to, to, it’s a teachable moment. It’s a way for, it’s time to tell people just what we’re talking about when we talk about the private sector.
GORDON PETERSON, HOST: Gets away from the demonization of the CEO.
Somebody pinch me. The Post's King defended a Republican presidential candidate as well as the private sector, and host Peterson agreed.
Significantly less surprising, Simon doubled down moments later:
SIMON: I have to respectfully disagree with you Colby. Shareholders might own corporations, they do not run corporations. The boards of directors, the CEOs run corporations.
King wasn’t deterred:
KING: Corporations are owned by shareholders. Shareholders are people in the number in the millions in this country. It’s the way in which this economy works. If you don't have investments in companies, where people get a reasonable return on their investments, we don’t have a private sector. And Romney’s right to raise that point, and I hope he expands on it in future discussions.
Wow. Good for King.
Consider that this comment by Romney instantly became a liberal talking point. A Google search of "Romney 'corporations are people'" generated over 500,000 results.
This was said less than 36 hours ago, and it already has over a half a million pieces written about it.
Given all the liberal finger-pointing at Romney, you have to seriously wonder how King will be received at the Post when he returns to work Monday.
Good luck, Colby. Our prayers are with you.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
The broken clock named Colby King gets it right for once.
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 12:16am.
Now for his second right moment of the day.....it might be a looooooooooooooooooong day.....................................
Never mind about stock holders....
Submitted by zenman1661 on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 12:33am.
Just the fact that that its people who work for and run these corporations makes what Romney said true. I guess liberals must think anyone involved with a corporation must be a Cylon.
Corporations are persons
Submitted by MainStreet on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 1:26am.
In the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394, the Supreme Court recognized that corporations were recognized as persons for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Didn't Greenpeace lawyers try
Submitted by shirtsbyeric on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 7:41am.
Didn't Greenpeace lawyers try to get animals declared as people so dolphins could sue fishermen?
Thats actually not a bad idea.
Submitted by zenman1661 on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 11:27am.
I definately think dolphins are a more intelligent life form than liberals.
ROTFL
Submitted by ConservaSerb on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 2:15pm.
Good one!
A wise & frugal government, which shall leave men free 2 regulate their own pursuits of industry & improvement, & shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. T. Jefferson
Kudos to King
Submitted by Boil It Down on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 1:34am.
That is some solid rational thinking, so rarely found these days. -bidn-
Well, since the libs are so
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 2:03am.
Well, since the libs are so enchanted with blaming 'evil corporations' for just about anything and everything........and they usually take it out on the people who are running the corporations..........then corporations must have some kind of a human side to them, right??? So what, exactly, did Romney say that was wrong???
These are the same people who want the 'government' (the biggest 'corporation' in the country') to do everything and anything for them.............but if it doesn't work out the way that they want it to, they don't hesitate to blame SOMEBODY ELSE for the problem, instead of the 'government'!!!!
SIMON & FUNK
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 5:29am.
And UNIONS aren't people either, right?
By the way, POLITICO is an LLC -- a Limited Liability Company, packed with people and it has shareholders.
LLC's share most of the characteristics of corporations, in that they are legal entities which allow people to trade in business in a collective sense. Though it appears companies are LESS highly regulated than corporations.
Are COMPANIES also NOT people Mr Simon?
I also refer Mr Simon to this on the home page of http://www.harvard.edu/harvard-corporation
President and Fellows (Harvard Corporation)
The oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere is the Harvard Corporation, known formally as the President and Fellows of Harvard College. It is the smaller of Harvard’s two governing boards; the other is the Board of Overseers. Following are the members of the Harvard Corporation.
Is HARVARD CORPORATION also NOT PEOPLE Mr Simon?
I only ask, Mr Simon, because in the spring of 2005 you were a Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University.
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
Liberals are idiots...
Submitted by adamsmith on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 5:30am.
Liberals are idiots(file under what else is new?). Take a shallow thinker like Billy Boy Maher. "Tax the evil corporations. Make them pay their fair share. Blah,blah,blah" I know Billy can't take an argument to the next step so I'll do it for him. When you tax corporations more, they put the additional taxes into the price or product they produce. The CONSUMER is the one paying any additional tax. It's the middle class they love to hate that picks up the additional cost.
Man, Liberals really are stupid.........
Like Larry the Cable Guy says, "I can do this all day".........
He's right
Submitted by ampul man on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 6:07am.
Some 60+ years ago, I learned in grade school, that corporations were considered people.
Not that I consider Wikipedia as an absolute authority, it's usually in the top returns on a Google search. From them (partial definition):
"Despite not being natural persons, corporations are recognized by the law to have rights and responsibilities like natural persons ("people"). Corporations can exercise human rights against real individuals and the state,[2] and they can themselves be responsible for human rights violations...."
CNN, the Clinton News Network---Bill decides; Hill reports
Simon has become such a
Submitted by buddyc on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 6:27am.
Simon has become such a partisan he is clueless on on how poor of an argument this is for the left. This is a liberal mistake that Romeny can ride all the way to the White House.
Corporations are people, millions of people and while not perfect, they are what have created the high standard of living that we have had. People realize in growing numbers that tax cuts and tax increases are a side show and the real problem is the lefts culture of overregulation and vilification of corporations that we badly need.
Only ignorant people can't see the validty of Romney's point. I wonder how Roger Simon feels about having the mental capacity of those retards who are bussed to protest at Target and Walmart in their SEIU T Shirts. When he appears on TV in the future he should wear one of those t shirts.
I hope Romney is up to the job. He has been dealt a winning hand. We need the right man this time. We can't afford another mistake.
Skynet Owns Corporations
Submitted by P.J. Gladnick on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 7:10am.
And all this time I thought Skynet owned the corporations.
Has anyone asked, "What would happen
Submitted by FastEd on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 8:13am.
if corporations were taxed higher? Who would pay the tax, the corporation or the people buying the corporations' products?"
Isn't it a fact that corporations DON'T pay taxes, per se? That tax increases are passed along to the cost of doing business, then to the buyers of that product?
You need to wonder if liberals ever knew or learned how products make it to market - nah, too much effort for such a small return They'd just blame those bad corporations for their money grabbing.
Meanwhile, the liberal hollywood crowd can make millions, dat ok, and they have yet to get on that BIG line of millionaires who are giving money back to the government, but that's because 'do as I say, not as I do'.
"We the People . . " Hey, congress - I'm one of the people - start listening!
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
Legal Person
Submitted by LaVallette on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 8:24am.
Look up definition of legal person: part from the fact that people make up all organizations. They are not some unknown pretend quantity. Not even the WAPO or NYT or LAT!!!
Are the Left's Enterprises Incorporated?
Submitted by iamsaved on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 9:12am.
The darlings of the left, Oprah Winfrey and George Soros, are both very wealthy and I'll bet a dollar to a donut they're incorporated?
What about those 20 and 30 million dollar a year athletes? I know some of them are as dumb as a box of rocks, but many aren't and have the wherewithal to incorporate.
And let's not forget the Hollywood and Rock stars from the left coast. Do they leave their assets unprotected?
All of the above are people aren't they?
And, is a "Super Committee" appointed by Congress without human form in anyway? A robotic entity maybe? It serves the same purpose as a corporation to insulate our elected officials from doing the job they were elected to do.
"The Obama Presidency needs to be downsized by S&P (Sarah Palin)"
Corporations are people
Submitted by Bodini on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 9:15am.
Corporations are people is a foreign concept to the robots at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and the other Marxist Media outlets since they are simply programmed to spew the talking points of the Marxist Democrat party and nothing else!
Romney was right on two counts
Submitted by clintm19 on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 12:18pm.
The supreme court has ruled corps have the rights of people.
But what I think Romney meant was, you tax corps, it's a de facto "tax" through fewer purchases, payroll cuts, higher prices and/or lower returns for investors. Real people, and real jobs. It's a no-brainer.
The shame of it all is Dems and the media are either too stupid to understand that, or that they think the American people are dumb enough to buy their BS. Scarier yet is if we get to a point that the majority of Americans really are that stupid.
~Do liberals think that corporations
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 5:12pm.
are owned and staffed by zombies? Aliens? Robots? One-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eaters?
Even government ststutes agree with Romney
Submitted by jimpeel on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 2:16am.
"In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise -- the words "person" and "whoever" include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals."
- 1 U.S.C. §1 (United States Code)
Romney is right.
It is nothing new that Liberals would get it wrong and then broadcast their ignorance. Remember the brouhaha over Sarah Palin's comments on Paul Revere? Notice how they all crawled back under their rocks when it was proven that she was right? Otherwise, we would still be hearing about it ad nauseum.
To be fair to Simon....
Submitted by mzk1 on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 2:30am.
He is not a leftist. He is the CEO, you might say, of Conservative / Libertarian PJTV, and he himself is somewhere between those two. Also a corporation consisting to people, although to the leftists they probably don't count as such.
I recall there was a British (IIRC) decision that a corporation could not be charged with treason, since it has no soul.
mzk
Submitted by Noel Sheppard on Mon, 08/15/2011 - 10:00am.
mzk,
You're thinking of the wrong Roger Simon. The one on IW this weekend was Roger Simon of Politico NOT Roger Simon of PJTV. ns