Author Topic: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney  (Read 74177 times)

Necrosis

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #300 on: October 01, 2014, 08:41:29 AM »
The amount of lying and flip flopping he did was insane, during the debates he didn't care about who was right, he simply wanted to say "gotcha" it was embarrasing.

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #301 on: October 01, 2014, 10:12:59 AM »
Mitt's going to go for it!
I cannot wait for another embarrassing loss Romney presidential campaign! :)

x2.  And to think, he is rising to the top because the rest of the GOP field is so very weak.  :-[

tu_holmes

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #302 on: October 01, 2014, 10:16:42 AM »
The amount of lying and flip flopping he did was insane, during the debates he didn't care about who was right, he simply wanted to say "gotcha" it was embarrasing.

I think the first debate definitely went more his way... It was all down hill from there.

Add to that, the VP debate, which went 100 percent to Biden, it just ended up looking bad all around for them.

I kind of want Romney to win the nomination because I have a bet going that the Republicans will put forth a rich white guy... If they do, I get free dinner!


chadstallion

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #303 on: October 01, 2014, 11:40:47 AM »
I think the first debate definitely went more his way... It was all down hill from there.

Add to that, the VP debate, which went 100 percent to Biden, it just ended up looking bad all around for them.

I kind of want Romney to win the nomination because I have a bet going that the Republicans will put forth a rich white guy... If they do, I get free dinner!


I could live with any republican; the pendulum will be swinging back toward the GOP anyway; and then people will hate them and it will revert back to the Dems.
plus, I can't wait for fox news to have to start defending all the silly things that will begin to happen.
w

Primemuscle

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #304 on: October 01, 2014, 01:57:26 PM »
I think the first debate definitely went more his way... It was all down hill from there.

Add to that, the VP debate, which went 100 percent to Biden, it just ended up looking bad all around for them.

I kind of want Romney to win the nomination because I have a bet going that the Republicans will put forth a rich white guy... If they do, I get free dinner!



Monica Wehby a Republican candidate running the Senate has refused or baked out of two debates with her opponent Jeff Merkley.

Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon making her first run for public office, made news in recent days when she refused to participate in two proposed joint forums with Merkley.

In televised campaign adds she rarely speaks. Is she afraid to reveal something?

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #305 on: October 01, 2014, 02:24:13 PM »
x2.  And to think, he is rising to the top because the rest of the GOP field is so very weak.  :-[

true that.  Romney lost to a senile mccain in 2008, and the worst polling prez since Carter in 2012. 

Mitt is the ultimate underachiever in big elections.   

BUT since this really is a weak GOP class... Cruz being the only anti-amnesty voice... romney could well win it.

Granted, without a punching bag named obama, lol, good luck.

IMAGINE if Liz warren won the nomination... she's "for the people, against the banks".  She HATES the banks. Mitt is EVERYTHING wrong with america, as far as she's concerned.  She'd wreck his shit in the debates lol".

She's a liar about a college application on being indian.   But nobody here can say she's not a very smart person.  Liberally misguided and a bedwetting crybaby... but she's no dummy.  She'd tear mitt up for everything he stood for.

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #306 on: October 03, 2014, 05:10:25 PM »
Romney's in demand as Republicans' future unclear
By Associated Press

ATLANTA — Almost two years after his Election Day drubbing, Mitt Romney is the Republican man in demand.

The twice-defeated White House contender is campaigning across seven states this week, covering nearly 6,000 miles in five days to raise money and energy for Republican midterm candidates from Georgia to Colorado.

Romney has repeatedly insisted he's not running for president again, and his closest aides laugh off a possible 2016 bid. But top GOP strategists and donors suggest his continued high profile in Republican politics highlights the party's murky future and a crowded 2016 field that is both flawed and without a clear front-runner

"There's a vacuum," said John Jordan, a major Republican donor based in California. "When there's 10 people in a possible presidential field, it's difficult for anyone to look presidential. None of these figures is overly compelling."

Just a month before the unofficial beginning of the next presidential primary season, Democrats have already begun to rally behind prospective candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. The race for the Republican nomination, however, is as wide open as most political veterans can remember.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had begun to assume a party leadership role before a traffic scandal tainted his brand. Major questions persist about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's commitment to the 2016 contest. And the rest of the potential field features conservatives, such as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who have yet to demonstrate widespread appeal.

That leaves Romney as this season's strongest draw for Republican midterm candidates battling for control of Congress.

He's earning a rock star's reception at virtually every appearance this week. At a rally for Michigan GOP Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land in suburban Detroit on Thursday, several people told Romney they wished he had won the presidency.

"I wish we had won," Romney said.

It was much the same the day before in Atlanta, where he campaigned alongside Attorney General Sam Olens after headlining a closed-door fundraiser for Senate candidate David Perdue. In thanking Romney for making the trip, Olens said, "I wish you were on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."

"I'm just sad I'm not able to be there either," Romney said, responding to a reporter's question about his interest in another run. "I'd like to be in the White House. I wish I would have had the chance."

The appearances were part of an aggressive five-day campaign swing covering some of the nation's premier midterm battlegrounds: Colorado, Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kentucky and Louisiana. Having swapped his private campaign plane for commercial travel, Romney is working long days to attend private fundraisers and public rallies to help leading Republican governors, Senate candidates and former allies like Olens.

Talking to reporters, Romney downplayed his role in a Republican Party that has "a whole series of different voices that are pulling in different directions."

"My role is just as one more voice," he said. "I was honored to become the Republican nominee, so I continue to have some voice. But I'm not running for anything — just trying to run to help people who are running for something, and I'm making my effort known in the states that welcome me."

After the Michigan rally, Romney was scheduled to finish the day at a Kentucky fundraiser to benefit Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It's the kind of schedule usually reserved for a political party's elite, not a twice-defeated elder statesman who insists his political career is over.

"The wandering eyes for Romney are a byproduct of the uncertainty of the field," said former Romney aide Kevin Madden, who described Romney as a "known commodity."

Hogan Gidley, a South Carolina-based veteran of presidential politics, explained Romney's appeal with a sports analogy.

"The most popular player on a football team is the backup quarterback when your team's struggling," Gidley said. "The party is struggling."

Indeed, even as the GOP's prospects this fall look good, polls suggest the party's brand is unpopular. And Republican leaders have ignored recommendations to address key issues such as immigration legislation ahead of the next presidential contest.

Still, donors like Jordan say they aren't yet worried.

All the Republican hand-wringing, he said, is like retailers worrying about Christmas sales in July.



tonymctones

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #307 on: October 03, 2014, 08:28:40 PM »
Here is why:

When Obama took office
• there was no end in sight for the unnecessary 2 trillion dollar war in Iraq (how many US service men and women died unnecessarily? 4000+)
• Osama Bin Laden was on the loose (remember when Bush said he didn’t know where Osama was and wasn’t even thinking about him?)
• the US auto industry was on the verge of collapse
• the housing market had collapsed
• Fannie/Freddie Mac collapsed
• big insurance (AIG) and reinsurance were on the verge of collapse
• banking big and small had collapsed (we came perilously close to nationalizing the banks in the US—something I never would have imagined possible)
• health insurance companies were routinely denying claims for “preexisting conditions”, etc. The Affordable Care Act put a stop to that.
• the worst downturn since the Great Depression had gripped the country.

All of that changed during the first term so the President was reelected.  Of course, it helped that his opponent ran an ineffective and self-sabotaged campaign.  Indeed, I think we can all agree that Obama was primarily elected the first time because of the failed presidency that preceded him.  People would have voted for a cat on the heels of the Bush presidency.



LMFAO this is everything anybody needs to know about your dumb ass!!!

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #308 on: October 12, 2014, 03:01:27 AM »
Why 2016 May Be Mitt Romney’s Year
by Josh Barro

One of the main problems with Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy was that it was never clear what he wanted to do if elected.

Mr. Romney’s case for himself was heavily bound up in his careers in consulting and private equity. He was the skilled manager who could identify problems, root out dysfunction and make anything work better. The guy who rescued the Olympics. The guy who led the search for his co-worker’s missing daughter. The Romney pitch was, in large part, about being manager-in-chief. It was a pitch with little policy content.

That didn’t fly in 2012. But it might actually work pretty well in 2016.

The 2012 election had to be about the big “what is government for?” questions because huge policy decisions loomed in 2013. The Affordable Care Act would be implemented, or not; parts of the Bush tax cuts would expire, or not; entitlements would be greatly reformed in an effort to shrink deficits, or not. A large fiscal adjustment was needed, if not right away, sometime within the next few years.

Whichever candidate won was going to have a lot of power to determine the shape of the federal government for years to come, so he had to talk about what he would have the government do.

Barack Obama defended the principle that government ought to take a strong and active role in the economy, by using fiscal policy to offset the effects of recessions, by regulating the financial sector more tightly, by offering a near-universal health care entitlement, and by taxing the rich more.

Mr. Romney proved an awkward messenger for Republicans’ big idea that the government should tax and spend less, and not discourage people from working and supporting themselves. The “47 percent” speech — essentially, a declaration that we’d have to grow the economy by making Americans less lazy — was the clearest example of Mr. Romney offering a big-picture vision that did not sell.

That failure sounds like a good reason for Mr. Romney not to run again. But in 2016, he might actually be able to bracket the big ideological questions and run on the small stuff.

The big questions from 2012 mostly got resolved in 2013. Tax rates went up, the spending cuts known as sequestration went into effect, and the Affordable Care Act is proceeding. The federal budget deficit has fallen below $500 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that the national debt will be stable as a share of the economy over the next decade. As a result, Congress will probably leave the federal budget more or less on autopilot for the next several years.

The health act has already been de-emphasized in 2014 midterm campaigns, in part because the existence of popular provisions in the law makes it awkward for Republicans to demand repeal without specifying a clear replacement.

While “what will government do?” was very much an open question in 2012, greater policy certainty means there will be more room to run on “I’ll be a better manager” in 2016. That will be especially true if the news continues to be dominated by stories of managerial and technical failure in the government.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

Healthcare.gov was plagued by “glitches.” The Secret Service let a man with an arrest record and a gun get in an elevator with the president, and a man with a knife get near the Obamas’ private residence. The Department of Veteran Affairs failed to provide timely medical care to sick veterans, then falsified records to hide that fact. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was overwhelmed by a surge of child migrants. The administration has faced criticism on coordinating response to Ebola in West Africa.

Even the big scandal obsessions of the conservative fever swamps — the Benghazi attack, the I.R.S. scandals and Fast & Furious — are, after you strip away the conspiracy theories, fundamentally stories about managerial failure. And while foreign policy debates obviously have huge ideological components, there’s a lot of room for dissatisfaction with this administration’s execution on its strategies in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Whether the increase in gaffes is real or just perceived, there have been a lot of news stories that might lead voters to say, “Gee, this looks like the sort of problem Mitt Romney might have handled better.”

Of course, to get to the point of making this case in a general election, Mr. Romney would first have to be renominated. The Republicans haven’t renominated a losing presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1968, but then, no losing Republican nominee has sought renomination during that time either.

In most of the last 50 years, there has been a clear heir apparent for the Republican nomination, whether a sitting vice president or a runner-up in a former primary campaign. The existence of a strong next-in-line candidate has been one reason not to try again. In this case, nobody is next in line. Especially if Jeb Bush does not run for the nomination, the Republican establishment figures who backed Mr. Romney in the last campaign will have no obvious place to go, putting him in an unusually good spot to seek renomination.

Candidates run all the time on airy ideas about leadership and competence, and win. Look at Rick Snyder’s election as governor of Michigan in 2010, or Mr. Romney’s own election as governor of Massachusetts in 2002. It’s standard to say Washington is “dysfunctional,” but that can mean several different things. If people mean the government has the wrong priorities, Mr. Romney has already shown his difficulty in convincing voters he has the right ones. But if people mean the government is not executing well on the priorities it has, Mr. Romney may find himself on favorable ground.

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #309 on: October 12, 2014, 04:45:59 PM »
Why 2016 May Be Mitt Romney’s Year


...the Affordable Care Act is proceeding. The federal budget deficit has fallen below $500 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that the national debt will be stable as a share of the economy over the next decade. As a result, Congress will probably leave the federal budget more or less on autopilot for the next several years.

The health act has already been de-emphasized in 2014 midterm campaigns, in part because the existence of popular provisions in the law makes it awkward for Republicans to demand repeal without specifying a clear replacement.

President Barack Obama aka Mr. Getting It Done!  :)

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #310 on: October 14, 2014, 11:32:14 AM »
Can’t quit Mitt: Friends say Romney feels nudge to consider a 2016 presidential run
by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Officially, Mitt Romney returned to Iowa, the quadrennial presidential proving ground, to give a boost to Joni Ernst. But at a closed-door breakfast fundraiser here Monday, the first question from a donor had nothing to do with Ernst’s Senate campaign.

“When you get elected to the Senate, your job should be to convince Mitt Romney to run for president again,” a donor told Ernst, according to several attendees. The Republican candidate said she would, while Romney laughed.

When Romney and Ernst gathered in a West Des Moines boardroom with about 40 agriculture executives Sunday night, one businessman after another pleaded with Romney to give the White House another shot.

And at a rally for Ernst in Cedar Rapids on Monday, the state legislator who introduced Romney said, “If his address was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I would sleep a lot better.” After Romney and Ernst finished speaking, some activists chanted, “Run, Mitt, run!”

Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and now the tacit head of the Republican Party, visited Iowa as part of a feverish nationwide tour designed to help the GOP take control of the Senate. He has insisted that he is not interested in running for president a third time. But his friends said a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity is nudging him to more seriously consider it.

Romney has huddled with prominent donors and reconnected with supporters in key states in recent months. Because of the vacuum of power within his party and the lack of a clear 2016 front-runner, confidants said Romney is grappling with this question: If drafted, would he answer the party’s call?

Further juicing the speculation was a Des Moines Register-Bloomberg News poll released over the weekend showing that Romney is the only potential 2016 candidate who would beat Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) among likely Iowa voters, 44 percent to 43 percent.

People in Romney’s vast political orbit who are waiting and wishing on him to launch another campaign said Romney has done little to quiet them and has been hazy about his plans following next month’s midterm elections.

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (R), who briefly ran against Romney in 2012 before becoming a close ally, said he wants to see Romney give it another go.

“There is a feeling that the country missed out on an exceptional president,” Pawlenty said. “If he runs, I believe he could win the nomination and the general election. It’d be the right person at the right time, and I would encourage him to do it.”

Pawlenty noted that Ronald Reagan ran unsuccessfully for president twice before being elected in his third attempt “and was stronger for it.” In contrast with Romney, Pawlenty said, “the emerging class of Republican candidates is untested and unproven.”

Within Romney’s political network, there has been informal chatter about a third run since early 2013, according to people familiar with the discussions. It bubbled up in phone calls and at dinners and has gained steam this year. Requests continue to pour in for him to appear on the campaign trail, and advisers said he is eager to mount a multi-state fly-around swing before Nov. 4.

In Iowa, however, Romney seemed uncomfortable with the 2016 talk. At the West Des Moines rally, he spoke for only five minutes, criticizing President Obama on income inequality, foreign affairs and other issues. When reporters tried to question him afterward, he sneaked into a dark maze of cubicles.

He also said that now that he was no longer a candidate, he had a joke to share involving Obama, golfer Phil Mickelson and tennis great Andre Agassi.

As Romney told it, Obama shows up at a bank to cash a check without his ID. The teller asks him to prove who he is, saying that Mickelson proved his identity by hitting a golf ball into a cup and Agassi proved his by hitting a tennis ball at a target. “Is there anything you can do to prove who you are?” the teller asks.

“I don’t have a clue,” Obama replies in the joke.

The crowd ate it up.

Former aides and senior Republicans say Romney appreciates the GOP masses crowing that he was right about issues such as Russia and health care. But what really intrigues him, they said, are the vulnerabilities among top-tier candidates in the Republican field. If Romney moves toward a race, it would be because he sees a path to victory.

“It’s the market pulling him,” said Kent Lucken, a longtime friend and adviser who accompanied Romney to Iowa. “People look at Hillary as the likely Democratic nominee, and the party needs a strong leader who can stand up to her and who’s been through the process.”

Romney is returning to Boston on Tuesday for a dinner that he and his wife, Ann, are hosting for former campaign advisers and business associates. The event — to benefit neurological research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — has Romney intimates abuzz.

Save-the-date notices have gone out for the third annual Romney policy retreat in Park City, Utah, in June 2015 — a signal that he wants a platform to promote his issues as the presidential primary campaign season gets underway.

Romney is also mingling privately with top donors who could fund a third campaign. Romney visited Sept. 23 with Joe Ricketts, a billionaire investor who finances the Ending Spending super PAC, at Ricketts’s palatial penthouse apartment covering the entire 78th floor of the Time Warner Center in New York.

On Oct. 6, Romney also took part in a GOP fundraising dinner at the Manhattan apartment of Woody Johnson, the New York Jets owner and former Romney campaign finance chairman. Several 2016 hopefuls gave presentations to the donors, while Romney served as a co-host and made no pitch.

At Johnson’s home, Romney and media magnate Rupert Murdoch spoke about Romney’s political future. According to two Romney allies familiar with the conversation, Romney was cagey with Murdoch but expressed concerns about the developing GOP field. Romney told Murdoch that he felt uneasy about the party’s non-interventionist drift on foreign policy and the base’s embrace of ideological hard-liners.

Many Romney boosters believe that his window of opportunity will be in mid- to late 2015, should Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) or Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) ascend and party establishment types turn to Romney as a savior.

If former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) opts out of a campaign, “there is going to be more pressure on Mitt to go,” said Tom Rath, an influential New Hampshire Republican.

At a luncheon this month in Atlanta to help GOP Senate nominee David Perdue, “people sat up and paid attention” to Romney, said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). “I pulled him aside afterward to thank him for coming. He said he’s not running, and I take him at his word. But I don’t think the door is entirely closed, and circumstances can change.”

That phrase — “circumstances can change” — has been repeated by many Romney backers since the former nominee used it to describe his own thinking about 2016 in a radio interview last month with Hugh Hewitt.

Spencer Zwick, Romney’s former national finance chairman, talks regularly with Romney and said he has been receiving daily calls from donors and other supporters. “There are still plenty of donors who hope circumstances will change and there will be an opportunity for Romney to run again,” he said.

Zwick is part of a slimmed-down inner circle, including longtime advisers Beth Myers, Peter Flaherty, Stuart Stevens, Lanhee Chen and aides Kelli Harrison and Matt Waldrip, who are advising Romney on political activities this fall.

Romney traveled through Iowa with three trusted advisers and friends: David Kochel, Ron Kaufman and Lucken. He also reunited with supporters from campaigns past. In Cedar Rapids, Romney spotted Jim Wilson, a Virginia man who logged more than 40,000 miles chasing the GOP nominee from coast to coast in his campaign-festooned GMC pickup. The two hugged. “You son of a gun,” Romney said.

Another fan, Gary Chidester, 64, came to the West Des Moines rally with a full coterie of Romney paraphernalia for the former candidate to autograph: campaign placards, enlarged photographs and buttons of Mitt and wife Ann, and paperback and audio copies of Romney’s book “No Apology.” He also held a framed drawing that a friend gave him of a black cruise ship named Obama sinking into the sea and a white ship named Romney with the caption, “We’re here to save you.”

“He’s the only qualified person to run this time,” Chidester said. “Mitt is a business genius. That’s why I’ve listened to this tape three times. He had it all down — he had Russia down, he had the debt down — and all the other Republicans are novices by comparison.”

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #311 on: October 15, 2014, 08:33:21 AM »
Can’t quit Mitt: Friends say Romney feels nudge to consider a 2016 presidential run
by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa —
He also said that now that he was no longer a candidate, he had a joke to share involving Obama, golfer Phil Mickelson and tennis great Andre Agassi.

As Romney told it, Obama shows up at a bank to cash a check without his ID. The teller asks him to prove who he is, saying that Mickelson proved his identity by hitting a golf ball into a cup and Agassi proved his by hitting a tennis ball at a target. “Is there anything you can do to prove who you are?” the teller asks.

“I don’t have a clue,” Obama replies in the joke.

The crowd ate it up.

A guy gets his ass kicked in a presidential election and the next thing you know, he's prancing around like he's Shecky Greene at the MGM Grand.  ::)

;D

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #312 on: October 27, 2014, 09:22:45 AM »
Donald Trump to Mitt Romney: ‘Don’t Run Again’
By Megan Turchi

The Donald has spoken: Mitt Romney should not run for president in 2016.

Though Romney has yet to throw his hat in the ring, Donald Trump has given his opinion anyway.

“He had his chance and he blew it,” Trump told Breitbart News.

He added:  “He had a great chance of winning. He should have won. That was an election that frankly should have been a much easier election than the probable 2016 candidate Hillary. That was an election that should have been won by the Republicans.”

Not content to share his thoughts with just one media outlet, Trump then brought his opinion to Twitter in his usual blunt style, "If Mitt Romney were in the private sector & he suffered the horrendous loss of 2012, do you think he’d rehire himself for 2016?—I don’t!"

This is not the first time Trump has spoken out against Romney. At the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in 2013, Trump explained why Romney lost, "He didn’t brag enough about his own triumphs (unlike certain outspoken real estate tycoons)."

Last week Romney’s wife Ann told The Washington Post that he was not planning on running in 2016—but “we’ll have to see what happens.”

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #313 on: December 01, 2014, 04:48:09 AM »
Please, Not Romney Again
By Ron Lipsman

The 2014 election is over, and attention has already turned to 2016.  Does the Republican success in this election portend a similarly favorable outcome in two years – as the Democrat congressional sweep in 2006 heralded the election of a Democrat president in 2008?  Perhaps.  But, of course, a great deal depends on whom the GOP nominates.  And lately, there has been a lot of talk that one of the serious possibilities is Mitt Romney.

Well, I am about to tell you why that would be an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party and for our country.

First of all, Romney ran a terrible campaign in 2012.  Barack Obama's litany of failures in his first four years was clearly evident to the American people well before the election.  Yet Romney was unable to capitalize on them.  It is almost beyond imagination that Romney was unable to articulate clearly why Fast & Furious, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and the Benghazi outrage were colossal failures that endangered the nation.  Moreover, his equal inability to describe clearly and simply what he would do differently, what philosophy motivated him, and how his policies would benefit the country was also a glaring failure.  He came across as a wooden, detached corporate type with no flair, no charisma, and no passion.  The final nail in his coffin was when he allowed Candy Crowley to intervene in the second presidential debate in order to rescue Obama from a debacle on the Benghazi issue.  If Romney could not stand up to Candy, how could he be expected to stand up to the Chinese and Russian presidents or to the Iranian ayatollahs?

Next, the Obama camp was able to cast Romney as a corporate stooge, beholden to big business interests and out of touch with the average American worker.  The Dems portrayed rich Mitt as aristocratic, unsympathetic, and heartless.  Romney was unable to counter these impressions.  In fact, he reinforced them with his ill-advised 47% remark.  Moreover, he never launched any counterattack.  Mitt was content to talk about what he'd done at Bain, but – like McCain – he made no effort to point out the unsavory nature of Obama's history, associates, or polarizing proclivities.

Third, there was the Mormon thing.  It's disturbing to think so, but it might have played a role in the vast number of evangelicals who declined to vote.  That may be unfair, but Mitt should have anticipated it.  Like Kennedy did with the Catholic issue, Romney should have gotten in front of it, argued strenuously that his religion would play no role in his presidency, and thereby not turn off the evangelicals.

Finally, he never conveyed any sense of historical political understanding.  He never discussed the increasing role that collectivism has been playing in our society, how it is a betrayal of the Founders' vision, and how it damages the nation – and why the continuation in office of Barack Obama would push us dangerously close to a transformation of the Republic into a Euro-style social welfare state.  Yes, he said "big government bad, free market capitalism good."  But it always seemed like the recitation of a mantra rather than an articulation of why progressives like Obama are destroying the nation.

Which leads to an even more devastating evaluation of Romney's candidacy.  Had he won, he certainly would have been better than Obama.  But I seriously doubt that it would have made any difference in the long-term trajectory of these United States.

In the last century, the progressive movement has captured the culture of the nation.  Progressives now control virtually all of the opinion-molding organs of American society: the media, libraries, museums, public education, the legal profession, seminaries, higher education, foundations, the federal bureaucracy – and, of course, the Democratic Party.  A half century ago, very few – for example, Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater – understood what was happening.  It is only since Reagan that more Americans have begun to catch on.  And while a substantial part of the GOP has grown conservative and aware of the historical transformation, alas, many – especially those in the so-called GOP establishment – are either in the dark or, worse, in agreement with the program.

Reagan made an effort to thwart the leftward drift of the nation.  And while he had great success in foreign and economic affairs, he had hardly any lasting impact on cultural or social matters.

Furthermore, neither of the two Republican presidents since Reagan (coincidentally, both named Bush) made any effort similar to Reagan's.  They both came from a long tradition in the party – exemplified by Eisenhower and Nixon – of GOP leaders who apparently believe one of two things:

    1. The conversion of the U.S. from a constitutional republic, practicing free-market capitalism and devoted to individual liberty into a Euro-style social welfare state, is a good thing.  It's just that we in the GOP can do it so much more effectively and efficiently than the hare-brained Democrats can.
    2. The aforementioned is not a good thing, but it seems to be inevitable because that is what the people want.  Repeat second sentence in #1 above.

Mitt Romney is, without any doubt, one of this type of Republican.  Whether he comes from camp 1 or 2 is unclear – he governed Massachusetts according to #1, but his book paints him as #2.  Whichever he is, it is irrelevant.  If there is to be any hope of reversing America's century-long slide toward socialist oblivion, we will need to experience a cultural counter-revolution.  A key part of that movement would be a succession of GOP presidents who understand the issue and have the leadership skills to guide the country's politics back to the ethos of the Founding Fathers.  Mitt Romney is not such an individual.

Ron Lipsman, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland


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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #314 on: December 01, 2014, 06:03:57 AM »
Wait a minute....This Ron Lipsman thinks Eisenhower and Nixon weren't conservative enough?!...

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #315 on: December 01, 2014, 06:40:09 AM »
Repubs would be NUTS to choose Romney again.

He support minimum wage.  He wants MORE amnesty.   He's wearing spray tan on Univision, telling hispanic viewers that the illegals need PERMANENT permission to stay.

and don't forget, Gruber was his right-hand man for Romneycare... so all the grubergate stink with obama goes right back to Romney.  

Plus, he LOST to the very beatable obama, even after leading in polls after debate #1.   Romney isn't liked by people, period.   great veep choice, great for secretary of anything... but president?  nah,

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #316 on: December 01, 2014, 07:05:09 AM »
Repubs would be NUTS to choose Romney again.

He support minimum wage.  He wants MORE amnesty.   He's wearing spray tan on Univision, telling hispanic viewers that the illegals need PERMANENT permission to stay.

and don't forget, Gruber was his right-hand man for Romneycare... so all the grubergate stink with obama goes right back to Romney.  

Plus, he LOST to the very beatable obama, even after leading in polls after debate #1.   Romney isn't liked by people, period.   great veep choice, great for secretary of anything... but president?  nah,

But he wants to be President.  He wants it very badly!  :-[

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #317 on: December 01, 2014, 07:08:32 AM »
But he wants to be President.  He wants it very badly!  :-[

it's a flaw for most ambitious people.  "Play your position" - Most people that smart, that successful, don't settle.   They don't know when to say "This is probably the ceiling for me".  There can only be one president.  the combo of factors... romney doesn't have them all. 

BayGBM

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #318 on: December 01, 2014, 07:45:09 AM »
it's a flaw for most ambitious people.  "Play your position" - Most people that smart, that successful, don't settle.   They don't know when to say "This is probably the ceiling for me".  There can only be one president.  the combo of factors... romney doesn't have them all. 


But... but... but his father was a governor.  It is Mitt's destiny!  :'(

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #319 on: December 01, 2014, 08:44:39 AM »

But... but... but his father was a governor.  It is Mitt's destiny!  :'(

Well, he appears to have been right on most of what he campaigned on.
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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #320 on: December 01, 2014, 08:47:57 AM »
Well, he appears to have been right on most of what he campaigned on.

How so?

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #321 on: December 01, 2014, 09:01:56 AM »
Well, he appears to have been right on most of what he campaigned on.

he said he woudln't raise min wage. He said he was against amnesty.

Since 2012, he's said we need a min wage, and we need permanent amnesty. 

andreisdaman

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #322 on: December 01, 2014, 09:05:51 AM »
he said he woudln't raise min wage. He said he was against amnesty.

Since 2012, he's said we need a min wage, and we need permanent amnesty. 

agreed......THE ULTIMATE FLIP FLOPPER.........Hillary will destroy him on all of the flip flops and contradictions

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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #323 on: December 01, 2014, 09:05:55 AM »
How so?


he said he woudln't raise min wage. He said he was against amnesty.

Since 2012, he's said we need a min wage, and we need permanent amnesty.  

I said what he campaigned on - Russia, Obamacare, working with congress, Iraq.....

I'm sure there's a ton of articles.
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Re: Life after defeat for Mitt Romney & the GOP
« Reply #324 on: December 01, 2014, 09:11:54 AM »
I said what he campaigned on - Russia, Obamacare, working with congress, Iraq.....

I'm sure there's a ton of articles.

working with congress???..congress won't work with him....they spent the first four years talking about Obama's birthcertificate and trying to de-legitimaize him as president......and then taking some 40 some odd votes to try to repeal Obamacare........

Russia is not really much of threat and their actions actually show how weak they are as a country.........you culd argue a bnit about Iraq..but they did not want us there and wanted us to leave...they wouldn't sign the immunity from prosecution agreement adn so we had to leave hence you would have seen a slew of American soldiers on trial on false trumped up charges.........jury is still out on Obamacare but millions more people have insurance and many republican governors have jumped on the bandwagon....