Snap Fact #365 - President Obama’s Successful Team Vs. Governor Romney’s Failed Team

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SUCCESSFUL, EXPERIENCED TEAM

Joe Biden, Vice President. Served 36 years in the U.S. Senate, and four years as Barack Obama's vice president. Biden was on the Foreign Relations Committee for his entire Senate tenure, sometimes serving as its chairman. He carved out a reputation as a brainy and talkative expert in international relations. His focus was on Soviet relations, arms control, the Balkans and NATO expansion.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State. Before serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

Jacob Joseph "Jack" Lew, White House Chief of Staff. Served under Presidents Obama and Clinton as Director of the Office of Management and Budget and earlier, was Principal domestic-policy adviser to House Speaker Tip O’Neill. He is an orthodox Jew.

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor. Ms. Jarrett has held positions in both the public and private sector, including the Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley. Jarrett also served as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees.

Gene B. Sperling, Senior Economic Advisor. Director of the National Economic Council under Presidents Obama and Clinton, and now serves as assistant to the president for economic policy.

David M. Axelrod, Senior Advisor. Was top political advisor to President Bill Clinton and ccampaign advisor to President Barack Obama during Obama's successful run for Presidency in 2008. He currently is Senior Strategist for Obama's re-election campaign.

David Plouffe, Senior Advisor. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant. Was campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign in the United States. He is credited with the campaign's successful overall strategy in the race (primarily against Senator Hillary Clinton) for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary during the first term. After leaving the podium in early 2011, Gibbs emerged as one of Obama's most ardent defenders during the 2012 Republican primaries and on cable television as the general election took shape. Gibbs was with Obama before Obama gained national prominence during the 2004 Democratic National Convention and understands Obama's message as well as anyone.

Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense. The 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997, Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993–1994, and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Retired United States Navy admiral, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2011. Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28th Chief of Naval Operations. He was only the third naval officer in Navy history to be appointed to four different four-star assignments; the others being the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples, and as the 32nd Vice Chief of Naval Operations. As Chairman, Mullen was the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces. He retired from the Navy after over 43 years of service.

Tom Donilon, National Security Adviser. Is serving in the Obama Administration, and has had a career as a U.S. political advisor, government official and lawyer. Previously, he served as Agency Review Team Lead for the State Department in the Obama transition, and as Deputy to National Security Advisor James Jones early in the Obama administration. Donilon replaced Jones as National Security Advisor on October 8, 2010.

David Petraeus America’s most famous general is now the CIA chief. His low-profile style has won the loyalty of the White House.

John Brennan, Counter-Terrorism chief. Is serving as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama; officially his title is Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President. His responsibilities include overseeing plans to protect the country from terrorism and respond to natural disasters, and he meets with the President daily. Previously, he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 presidential campaign and transition

Bill Gates, Obama business advisor and Billionaire co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family". The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.

Warren Buffett, Obama business American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffet is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. In 2012, American magazine Time named Buffett one of the most influential people in the world. Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation.

General Colin Powell is the first, and so far the only, African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a four star general and served as Bush II’s Secretary of State.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S ALARMINGLY FAULTED TEAM

Paul Ryan, Domestic Policy Adviser/Vice Presidential Candidate. Repeal ObamaCare advocate. Creator of a health care plan which turns Medicare into a voucher system, that costs seniors more for their health care, and slashes Medicaid services. The money saved ends up as a tax cut for the wealthy. There's no one on Romney's team who embodies the "half the country are moochers" mind set ( on that 47 percent video) more than Ryan.

Dan Senor, Foreign Policy Adviser. A neocon pundit, Senor made his name as a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, gaining a reputation as “the spinmeister responsible for selling the early years of the occupation … as a rosy time—even as bombs exploded daily and sectarian violence ripped apart the country." He recently grabbed attention by getting “a little ahead” of Romney by backing an Israeli strike on Iran. Then Romney cited Senor’s book about Israeli entrepreneurship in his heavily criticizedremarks that suggested economic disparities between Israelis and Palestinians could be chalked up to “culture.”

Karl Rove, Republican strategist. Known as “Bush’s Brain” he is back in a big way. Co-founder of the conservative super PAC American Crossroads and its affiliated non-profit Crossroads GPS, vowed to spend $300 million on the election. By far the biggest spender this election cycle, with a donor roster that is a virtual reprise of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that ran attack ads against Democratic Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

Grover Norquist, Lobbyist. Founder of the advocacy group "Americans for Tax Reform" (funded by the billionaire Koch brothers).  As one of the most influential figures in Republican politics, Norquist required that Romney, like all other Republicans in Congress, sign a pledge to never raise taxes. This pledge is in direct variance with the American Constitution.

John Bolton, Foreign Policy Adviser. Bush-era ambassador to the United Nations. It's never a bad day to bomb Iran advocate, John Bolton has been pushing for an Iran strike for years. He recently said he thought the Israelis should have bombed Iran "three and a half years ago."

Glenn Hubbard, Economic Adviser. Hubbard, a supply-side economist who was George W. Bush’s first chief economist and the architect of the Bush tax cuts, is an odd choice for this assignment, since any criticism he makes is undermined by the clear failure of his own policies in comparison with those deployed by Obama (which is described by the New York Times as showing “persistent economic growth”).

Robert Bork, Judicial Adviser. Bork was a failed Supreme Court nominee under President Ronald Reagan who played a controversial role in the Watergate scandal. According to Ted Kennedy, "Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids [and] schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution." Could he be in the wings as a Supreme Court nominee?

Harold Hamm, Energy Advisor. Self-made American oilman worth $9.7 billion. Advocate of ending federal control of drilling on government land and giving states the authority to frack and mine government lands. The New York Times calls this "a radical shift from decades of policies under both Democrat and Republican presidents." According to Rolling Stone, Hamm has also given nearly $1 million to Romney's super-PAC.

General Tommy Franks, Military Adviser. Retired commander of the US Central Command who led the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Complicit in perpetrating the weapons of mass destruction myth in order get congressional approval for the Iraqi invasion. Once the war was over, he had no plan to deal with the aftermath. Oh, and he is the guy who lost Osama bin Laden when they had him cornered.

Reince Prebus, Republican National Committee Chairman. An inarticulate neo-con leader of the RNC.  Priebus is known for his constant racial "dog whistles" about President Obama's birth certificate, gutting welfare, and supposed "un-American" stances. That this anti-American garbage is turning up nationwide, now that Priebus is running the RNC, is of no surprise given his history of scheming to deny legal voters their right to the franchise.

Tom Ridge, Former Pennsylvania Governor and DHS Secretary. Political cheerleader for Mitt Romney. Otherwise employed in private sector endeavors.

Sheldon Adelson, Billionaire casino magnate, has been the leading contributor to outside groups supporting Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates this election cycle, donating tens of millions of dollars. His company, Las Vegas Sands, is also the focus of a federal investigation into possible violations of bribery laws at its casinos in Macau, China. He stands to make billions if Romney is elected as well as having the federal investigation scrapped.

Koch Brothers, Billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. They provide $100's of millions to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus. Their father was a founder of the John Birch Society. Much of their vast wealth comes from coal. Is it any wonder why Romney is such a booster of this dirtiest form of energy?

The Misinformation Team, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, et al, will continue to misinform and twist the truth no matter who gets elected. If it’s Romney, they will be emboldened in their mendacity.