Different hand. Different flag. Different camera angle. Different lighting. Checkered shirt - white shirt. Suit coat swap for tie. Mounted mic, not hand mic. What more proof do you want?
________________UPDATE_________________
SEE:
 |
| not |
 |
| mitt |
Not the same cold-as-ice, hard-as-a-stone, uber-capitalist, take-no-prisoners, dance-on-your-mother's-grave eyes. No.
Moreover, as HuffPo explains:
The Democratic-aligned Alliance for a Better Minnesota already branded McFadden "Minnesota's Mitt Romney" in a bid to lump him with the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who was pounded by President Barack Obama's team over private equity deals that led to job losses.
McFadden distinguishes his activities at Lazard from what Romney did at Bain Capital. McFadden describes his role as a middle-man, helping companies looking to sell find a buyer or vice versa. He maintains his firm had no operational control over employment decisions made before or after the transactions. Democrats argue some companies McFadden assisted subsequently engaged in layoffs.
So far, Franken hasn't personally mentioned McFadden or Lazard in public settings. If he does, Herold said the Republican's campaign will highlight the senator's investment.
In 2006, Franken added the Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund to a vast personal portfolio. A Senate disclosure form lists the value of his holding in the fund between $100,001 and $250,000, a small fraction of his total investments.
Fund managers first put Lazard in the mix in 2012 and as of this February that component amounted to about 2.3 percent of the overall value.
"If Mike McFadden survives the Republican primary battle, he's not going to be able to use one-tenth of one percent of Sen. Franken's assets to prevent voters from hearing about 100 percent of his own record as an investment banker," said Franken campaign spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff.
Herold said the extent of Franken's Lazard connection doesn't change things.
Got that? What? Unconvinced? You doubt?
Once more with feeling, main theme - from Strib this time, not HuffPo:
McFadden’s handlers said Wednesday that investment banking differs from private equity in that there is scant operational control beyond simply helping others buy and sell companies. A struggling company will hire an investment banker, for example, to find a buyer and once a suitable buyer is found, the investment banker is usually done with the deal, campaign officials said.
Whatever happens next is now in the new buyer’s — not the investment banker’s — control, campaign officials say.
Still Unconvinced? That alone proves something.
You must be a squalid 47-percenter is all. An Occupy- something/somebody.
...............................
So, Mike, you tell 'em, you're not just a lower net worth smaller pond Romney clone, are you?
______________FURTHER UPDATE____________
One of the knocks against Romney was his declining to release tax returns and having money stashed in offshore tax havens. That being so, the questions naturally arise concerning The McFadden, now that the robot's the endorsed GOP US Senate candidate. How has he, if he has, exploited tax code loopholes [including offshore opportunity] and how do his taxes as a percent of income compare to Joe Mainstreet's, union laborers', indeed, all middle-income people in general in Minnesota and nationwide? As a sharp banker's banker, what's the expectation, and how should voters regard any robotic reticence in such matters?