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Magazine 24...
Businessman
Faces Backlash After Appearing on Obama’s Enemies List
by Rob
Bluey and Brandon Stewart
June 6, 2012
Frank
VanderSloot grew up a poor kid in rural Idaho. His father made $300 a
month.
His clothes came from the Salvation Army. Yet through determination and
hard
work-and with the help of America’s free-enterprise system-today he’s
the
successful CEO of a global supplier of wellness products.
VanderSloot’s
rags-to-riches story is not unlike other American tales of individuals
who have
benefited from the free market. In VanderSloot’s case, however, that
success
came with a price-but only when he decided a write a check to a super
PAC that
supports Mitt Romney.
“The whole
free-enterprise system has been so good to me and my family, I want to
protect
that,” he said. “I now see that system under attack.”
VanderSloot
traveled from Idaho this week to visit The Heritage Foundation. He
spoke at the
weekly Bloggers Briefing and sat down afterward to share his story.
VanderSloot
said his life changed forever on April 20. That’s when President
Obama’s
campaign created the first presidential “enemies list” since the Nixon
era.
Eight private citizens were singled out for their donations to Romney.
They
committed no crimes, sought no attention, and yet they became the
subject of
Obama’s scorn.
VanderSloot
got his first taste of the left’s tactics in February when he was the
subject
of hit pieces by left-wing Mother Jones and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald.
Both
stories surprised VanderSloot for their harsh and negative portrayal of
Melaleuca, the company he has overseen for 26 years.
“We have an
excellent reputation everywhere we go,” VanderSloot said. “I don’t have
a PR
firm. My attitude has been, ‘If we’re worthy of a good reputation,
we’ll have
one.’ And that’s worked for 26 years until this comes out. And then
people are
saying all kinds of things about us.”
But that
backlash paled in comparison to the negative attention created by
Obama’s team.
The campaign website KeepingGOPHonest.com castigated the eight Romney
donors as
having “less-than-reputable records. Quite a few have been on the wrong
side of
the law, others have made profits at the expense of so many Americans.”
The
resulting attention led to a loss of business for Melaleuca. Only when
VanderSloot began speaking out to publicly defend his reputation and
the
company’s record did he begin to receive an outpouring of support.
Conservatives,
meanwhile, quickly pounced on Obama’s attack. The Heritage Foundation’s
Rory
Cooper wrote, “President Obama has relied on a vast grassroots network
to
coerce, bully, boycott and vilify individuals lawfully taking part in
the
political process, just as his own donors and supporters are freely
allowed to
engage.”
Kimberly
Strassel wrote two subsequent columns for the Wall Street Journal and
VanderSloot told his story on Fox News.
VanderSloot
said he was initially unprepared for the Obama campaign’s assault on
his
character. Some of the allegations-that he was “litigious, combative,
and a
bitter foe of the gay rights movement”-are completely false. It didn’t
seem to
matter.
Now,
however, he isn’t going to let anyone sully his reputation-even if it
means
taking the fight directly to the most powerful man in America.
“There is
no way I could afford to run for cover because it just sets a bad
example,”
VanderSloot said. “When you make a list of eight people, it’s like
saying,
‘Just watch what we do to these guys.’ I don’t know the other seven
guys. I
just know for me, I can’t run for cover and I have no inclination to.
This is
America.”
Source:
blog.heritage.org
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and others, and see the video, at Mail Magaine 24
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