More On Mitt
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 30th, 2012
Good morning!
7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney’s Electability Is A Myth
Dec 27, 2011
Mitt Romney was a moderate governor in Massachusetts with an unimpressive record of governance. He left office with an approval rating in the thirties and his signature achievement, Romneycare, was a Hurricane Katrina style disaster for the state. Since that’s the case, it’s fair to ask what a Republican who’s not conservative and can’t even carry his own state brings to the table for GOP primary voters. The answer is always the same: Mitt Romney is supposed to be “the most electable” candidate. This is a baffling argument because many people just seem to assume it’s true, despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary.
1) People just don’t like Mitt: The entire GOP primary process so far has consisted of Republican voters desperately trying to find an alternative to Mitt Romney. Doesn’t it say something that GOP primary voters have, at one time or another, preferred Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and now even Ron Paul (In Iowa) to Mitt Romney?
To some people, this is a plus. They think that if conservatives don’t like Mitt Romney, that means moderates will like him. This misunderstands how the process of attracting independent voters works in a presidential race. While it’s true the swayable moderates don’t want to support a candidate they view as an extremist, they also don’t just automatically gravitate towards the most “moderate” candidate. To the contrary, independent voters tend to be moved by the excitement of the candidate’s base (See John McCain vs. Barack Obama for an example of how this works). This is how a very conservative candidate like Ronald Reagan could win landslide victories. He avoided being labeled an extremist as Goldwater was; yet his supporters were incredibly enthusiastic and moderates responded to it.
Let’s be perfectly honest: Mitt Romney excites no one except for Mormons, political consultants, and Jennifer Rubin. To everybody else on the right, Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama would be a “lesser of two evils” election where we’d grudgingly back Mitt because we wouldn’t lose as badly with him in the White House as we would with Obama. That’s not the sort of thing that gets people fired up to make phone calls, canvass neighborhoods, or even put up “I heart Mitt” signs in their yards.
2) He’s a proven political loser: There’s a reason Mitt Romney has been able to say that he’s “not a career politician.” It’s because he’s not very good at politics. He lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994. Although he did win the governorship of Massachusetts in 2002, he did it without cracking 50% of the vote. Worse yet, he left office as the 48th most popular governor in America and would have lost if he had run again in 2006. Then, to top that off, he failed to capture the GOP nomination in 2008. This time around, despite having almost every advantage over what many people consider to be a weak field of candidates, Romney is still desperately struggling. Choosing Romney as the GOP nominee after running up that sort of track record would be like promoting a first baseman hitting .225 in AAA to the majors.
3) Running weak in the southern states: Barack Obama won North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida in 2008 and you can be sure that he will be targeting all three of those states again. This is a problem for Romney because he would be much less likely than either Gingrich or Perry to carry any of those states. Moderate northern Republicans have consistently performed poorly in the south and Romney won’t be any exception. That was certainly the case in 2008 when both McCain and Huckabee dominated Romney in primaries across the south. Mitt didn’t win a single primary in a southern state and although he finished second in Florida, he wasn’t even competitive in North Carolina or Virginia. Since losing any one of those states could be enough to hand the election to Obama in a close race, Mitt’s weakness there is no small matter.
4) His advantages disappear in a general election: It’s actually amazing that Mitt Romney isn’t lapping the whole field by 50 points because he has every advantage. Mitt has been running for President longer than the other contenders. He has more money and a better organization than the other candidates. The party establishment and inside the beltway media are firmly in his corner. That’s why the other nominees have been absolutely savaged while Romney, like John McCain before him, has been allowed to skate through the primaries without receiving serious scrutiny.
Yet, every one of those advantages disappears if he becomes the nominee. Suddenly Obama will be the more experienced candidate in the race for the presidency. He will also have more money and a better organization than Mitt. Moreover, in a general election, the establishment and beltway media will be aligned against Romney, not for him. Suddenly, Romney will go from getting a free pass to being public enemy #1 for the entire mainstream media.
If you took all those advantages away from Romney in the GOP primary, he’d be fighting with Jon Huntsman to stay out of last place. So, what happens when he’s the nominee and suddenly, all the pillars that have barely kept him propped up in SECOND place so far are suddenly removed? It may not be pretty.
5) Bain Capital: Mitt Romney became rich working for Bain Capital. This has been a plus for Romney in the Republican primaries where the grassroots tend to be dominated by people who love capitalism and the free market. However, in a year when Obama will be running a populist campaign and Occupy Wall Street is demonizing the “1%,” Mitt Romney will be a TAILOR MADE villain for them. Did you know that Bain Capital gutted companies and made a lot of money, in part, by laying off a lot of poor and middle class Americans? Do you know that Bain Capital got a federal bailout and Mitt Romney made lots of money off of it?
“The way the company was rescued was with a federal bailout of $10 million,” the ad says. “The rest of us had to absorb the loss … Romney? He and others made $4 million in this deal. … Mitt Romney: Maybe he’s just against government when it helps working men and women.”
The facts of the Bain & Co. turnaround are a little more complicated, but a Boston Globe report from 1994 confirms that Bain saw several million dollars in loans forgiven by the FDIC, which had taken over Bain’s failed creditor, the Bank of New England.
Did you know Ted Kennedy beat Romney in 1994 by hammering Mitt relentlessly on his time at Bain Capital? No wonder. The ads write themselves.
Imagine pictures of dilapidated, long since closed factories. They trot out scruffy looking workers talking about how bad life has been since Mitt Romney crushed their dreams and cost them their jobs. Then they show a clip of Mitt making his $10,000 bet and posing with money in his clothes. All Mitt needs is a monocle and a sniveling Waylon Smithers type character to follow him around shining his shoes to make him into the prototypical bad guy the Democrats are trying to create.
Now, the point of this isn’t to say that what Mitt did at Bain Capital was dishonorable. It certainly wasn’t. To the contrary, as a conservative, I find his work in the private sector to be just about the only thing he has going for him. But, people should realize that in a general election, Mitt’s time at Bain Capital will probably end up being somewhere between a small asset and a large liability, depending on which side does a better job of defining it.
6) The Mormon Factor: This is a sensitive topic; so I am going to handle it much, much more gently than Hollywood and the mainstream media will if Mitt gets the nomination. Mormons do believe in Jesus Christ, the Mormon Church does a lot of good work, the ones I’ve met seem to be good people, and two of my best friends are Mormons. That being said, Mormons are not considered to be a mainstream Christian religion in large swathes of the country. There will be Protestants who will have deep reservations about voting a Mormon into the White House because they’ll be afraid it will help promote what they believe to be a false religion. There have also been a number of polls that show that significant numbers of Americans won’t vote for a Mormon as President.
Just look at a couple of the more recent polls and consider how much of an impact this issue could have in a close election.
The poll found 67 percent of Americans want the president to be Christian and 52 percent said they consider Mormons to be Christian. Twenty-two percent of those polled said they don’t think Mormons are Christians and 26 percent are unsure.
“I do believe they are moral people, but again there is a difference between being moral and being saved,” Linda Dameron, an evangelical Republican in Independence, Mo., told the Tribune.
More than 40 percent of Americans would be uncomfortable with a Mormon as president, according to a new survey that also suggests that as more white evangelical voters have learned White House hopeful Mitt Romney is Mormon, the less they like him.
A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute released late Monday also shows that nearly half of white evangelical Protestant voters — a key demographic in the Republican primary race — don’t believe that Mormonism is a Christian faith, and about two-thirds of adults say the LDS faith is somewhat or very different than their own.
You should also keep in mind that if Mitt Romney gets the nomination, Hollywood and the mainstream media will conduct a vicious, months’ long hate campaign against the Mormon Church. They will take every opportunity to make Mormons look weird, racist, kooky, scary, and different. Would this be a decisive factor? I’d like to say no, but by the time all is said and done, it’s very easy to see Romney potentially losing hundreds of thousands of votes across the country because of his religion.
7) He’s a flip-flopper. Maybe my memory is failing me, but didn’t George Bush beat John Kerry’s brains in with the “flip flopper” charge back in 2004? So now, just eight years later, the GOP is going to run someone that even our own side agrees is a flip-flopper right out of the gate? Romney doesn’t even handle the charge well. When Brett Baier at Fox pointed out the obvious, Romney’s response was to get huffy and deny that he was flip flopping, which is kind of like Lady Gaga denying that she likes to get attention. If Mitt can’t even handle run-of-the-mill questions from FOX NEWS about his flip flopping, what makes anyone think he can deal with the rest of the press in a general election?
There are a lot of issues with trying to run a candidate who doesn’t seem to have any core principles. It makes it impossible for his supporters to get excited about him because you can’t fall in love with a weathervane. Even worse, since politicians tend to be such liars anyway and you know Romney has no firm beliefs, it’s very easy for everyone to assume the worst. Democrats will feel that Romney will be a right wing death-beast. Republicans will think that Romney will screw them over. Independents won’t know what to believe, which will make the hundreds of millions that Obama will spend on attack ads particularly effective. Ronald Reagan famously said the GOP needed “a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors.” That’s particularly relevant when it comes to Mitt Romney who has proven to be a pasty grey pile of formless mush.
*L*S*O*S*
Readers: Thoughts? Anything on anything….blog me.
Clara: I am sorry that you could not find the day you were looking for on my blog. Thanks for your persistency in sticking around. I will be here unless someone else chooses to shut me down. So please support “Stop Censorship – Stop SOPA” -thanks.
Ronnie: And there you have it – a country cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Howie: You always seen to have additional interesting info on the current topic. Thanks for sharing.
Al: Like most, I am crazy about any baby animals. Elephants are no different in their baby cuteness. Loved it -Thanks too for sharing. You can notice the difference in expressions on these elephants (they are smiling) compared to the elephants abused in the video I posted.
Mike, Our resident “Mike” that usually posts political info and responds to Human Events: I was not sure if it was you commenting the last couple of times as you haven’t been the rebuttal to Human Events for awhile. I HOPE you’re still here. Like Robert,Rt did recently, any chance you can add something to your name, so that I/we know it is you? You have been a regular for so long, I just want to recognize that if you don’t mind. Thanks.
Peace & Love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
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January 30th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Hi everyone. Important legislation being voted on today:
On Jan. 24, 2012, in his State of the Union Address, President Obama said “Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow.” Immediately after the speech, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters, “I think people should have enough sense not to do it [insider trading] without legislation, but I will support legislation.” On Jan. 26, 2012, Senator Reid scheduled a cloture vote [a vote to end debate on a pending bill and move to a final passage vote] on the STOCK Act for Jan. 30, 2012.
SUPPORT the STOCK Act. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act would prohibit members of Congress and federal employees from trading stocks based on nonpublic information obtained on the job, and it would require greater oversight of the growing “political intelligence” industry. The US Senate and the US Supreme Court are the only two out of 975 federal entities that appear to have no rules and no laws prohibiting them from trading stocks based on nonpublic information they gain on the job. While the US House of Representatives Ethics Manual states that its members should “never use any information coming to him confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means for making private profit,” it currently remains legal to do so.
Join me, Senator Russ Feingold’s Progressives United, and thousands of people across the country who are urging lawmakers to pass the STOCK Act so we can make sure no insider trading occurs in the halls of Congress. Add your name to stop insider trading in Congress:
http://www.democratsenators.org/o/44/t/11885/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=421&track=PU&tag=PU
—
I’m sorry this is going out a little late. I still feel it is beneficial to let Congress know how we feel about their elitist behavior. Please consider signing and sending.
/SB
January 30th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Joyce, that was my only point, it’s a minor percentage but if it happens at all, it causes women to act competitively with each other – over a man – yikes – (not that men don’t act this way, it isn’t an either/or situation or a who’s worst kind of competition), and if anyone, in this case a female is playing a psychological head game with themselves it’s not a bad thing to point it out (and no I don’t feel compelled to point it out for men, they can fend for themselves).
I never said the other day or ever that the percentage of women doing anything ‘bad’ is near as much as men. I just said that I have known women like this (and they have repeatedly hurt themselves more than anyone else), so if it’s a self identifier for anyone, well – they can help themselves change that, if they don’t want to change it, then they don’t have to…they can keep on keepin’ on.
I dislike hearing the personal story of a friend or acquaintance who had a chance encounter with a dawg and didn’t recognize it for what it was or that a female pal chased after a taken man and then they didn’t really want him anyway or that they were into it with mr taken and then he cut it short and they felt compelled at that point to tell their gf/wife and hey I’m sure men do all of that shit with much more regularity. That’s it…
I think there’s a lot more gray area in human relationships and I’ll end it there, really don’t mind being called out but claiming that I side with men over women, or that I always cite how women can be as bad as men, well – no I don’t but if that’s your perception, that’s your perception…
Luv, Zen Lill
January 30th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
The latest is, by a vote of 93 to 2, the Senate agreed to proceed with debate on the STOCK Act.
Senators Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., voted against the motion. Five senators did not vote: Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Mary Landrieu, D-La., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
A House Republican leadership aide told CBS News that lawmakers will take up their version of the STOCK Act by the end of February. House Republicans plan to expand the legislation beyond the Senate bill to include non-stock investments and also include executive branch officials and employees.
“Building upon the Senate bill, this common-sense proposal will not only deal with insider trading of stocks, but also prevent all federal officials and employees from using insider information for profit in other areas in a constitutionally sound way,” Laena Fallon, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, told CBS News. “As Leader Cantor has said, he strongly supports increased disclosure to prevent any sense of impropriety and ensure the public’s confidence and trust in our elected officials.”
Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota who introduced legislation in the House had never had more than 14 congressional sponsors. But in the wake of the “60 Minutes” report that made the public aware, it now has 171 co-sponsors in the House.
Slaughter, testified to the committee that one of the bill’s critical provisions was being ignored — a provision to regulate the burgeoning “political intelligence” industry.
“Political intelligence,” now a $100 million-a-year industry, provides hedge funds and other investors with information about upcoming legislation that could impact stock prices. The STOCK Act would make political intelligence firms register with Congress like lobbyists.
“These so-called political intelligence firms have operated quietly in the background without any oversight,” Slaughter said.
———
The news reports that some members of Congress have complained that the focus on the issue is overblown and has become a “witch hunt.”
/SB
January 30th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Oh and I forgot, Misch, the 8th reason why Mitt won’t fit – Sheldon Adelson, this bils man likes Newt better and that’ll be that, though he may change his mind (yeah, unlikely, sinnce he’ll be snagging FL tomorrow). – ZL
January 30th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
One more time let me point out how terrible it was to have had this country run exclusively by white males.
The newly discovered assassination tapes taken on board Air Force One and hidden by the military and the rest of the white boys until everyone who could be charged in a cover up is dead.
To further cloud up the issue. The white boy is issuing another hidden 45 HOURS of hidden tapes from the JFK library.
But pay attention to the 45 minutes concerning the events that occurred during the assassination of President Kennedy. The Warren Commission was never given this information.
The tapes show that the cover up began with the autopsy being moved from the hospital ordered by those that were pro Kennedy to the hospital recommended by those military people who were anti kennedy. Hence the autopsy report is suspect to say the least.
It gets better when you learn that some of the more than 45 minutes has disappeared and another 15 minutes has been just kept from the public on GP(the General Principle that they can do it).
Need another reason to involve more than just white males in all things government, business, religion, or anything important to those other than white boys?
This is a sick conspiratorial group. They will NEVER accept responsibly for the evil they do and they will not stop doing evil because it is their nature.
Robert
January 30th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
SB, I love your way with a report. Can you imagine the head of the Senate saying, “I think people should have enough sense not to do it [insider trading] without legislation, but I will support legislation.”
So if their is no laws to prevent banks from being robbed, people will have enough sense to not rob banks.
Why do we ever vote for a white male whether he is dem or republican? They are either too stupid to govern or just to damn crooked to be trusted with the reins of power.
I am a white woman who has supported three male relatives and two female cousins who are politicians.
Carrie
January 30th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
GO AHEAD… BE BORED!
I never thought that I would see an entire book written about the concept of boredom — let alone find it interesting! But I certainly did.
The recently published Boredom: A Lively History made me realize how underrated it actually is. Between e-mailing, texting and updating Facebook statuses… working anywhere and everywhere on laptops…
and responding to endless phone calls, it seems like no matter where we are, we fill every minute of our free time.
And that leaves precious few moments to simply daydream, which helps our creative juices flow. In today’s busy, wired world, slowing down and carving out moments for ourselves is more important than ever.
To discuss the latest findings, I called the author, Peter Toohey, PhD, a professor of classics at the University of Calgary in Canada.
SPARKING NEW IDEAS
Dr. Toohey explained to me that research increasingly supports the notion that daydreaming — just like dreaming at night while you sleep — is actually a dynamic period for the brain.
For example, in a recent study done by the University of British Columbia in Canada, investigators placed a group of students in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners and asked them to push a button when numbers appeared on a screen —
a mindless, routine task that would give them an opportunity to daydream.
After the exercise was over and researchers looked at the fMRI brain scans, they found that the parts of the students’ brains that are associated with complex problem-solving had actually been highly active during episodes of daydreaming.
In other words, while you are bored and daydreaming, you are unknowingly working your way through puzzles that are bothering you, such as figuring out the perfect theme for your child’s birthday party or discovering exactly what to say to your mother-in-law that will prevent her from spending the whole week with your family but won’t insult her.
“Sometimes the most useful ideas and solutions come to us when we are trying the least hard,” said Dr. Toohey.
DREAM ON
Of course, there are times when concentration is key. Dr. Toohey wouldn’t recommend daydreaming while, say, driving, rushing to meet an important deadline or having a heart-to-heart conversation with your spouse.
But there are ways to create space for yourself — dull moments during which it’s perfectly acceptable to let your mind wander.
I don’t know about you, but for me technology — as great as it can be — is often the biggest obstacle. So I’m going to try unplugging myself from all of my various devices (yes — that means the phone, the computer and the TV!) for about 30 minutes a day.
Instead, I’m going to go for a walk or a bike ride, whittle a stick or knit a scarf, which will hopefully allow my thoughts to drift off into whatever direction they like.
I know what you’re thinking — it sounds boring. It gives us an uncomfortable feeling when we think about cutting off communication and facing silence. But, ironically, when we’re less wired, our brains’ batteries seem to recharge, so why not give it a shot?
Source:
Peter Toohey, PhD, professor of classics, faculty of arts, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Toohey is author of Boredom: A Lively History (Yale).
January 30th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
SB, I have to agree with Robert, RT here. None of the other 43 presidents found it necessary to ask Congress to give up Insider Trading.
White men all.
Alycedale
January 30th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
In a Facebook post this weekend, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin defined the GOP primary as not a battle between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney but one between “the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on.”
She acknowledged that Gingrich was far from a perfect vessel for the Tea Party movement, but called the tactics the establishment used against him the last week as nothing short of Stalin and Alinsky-esque.
She made the point that the GOP establishment was fiercer in their attacks against Gingrich than they were against President Barack Obama and rightfully asked who the GOP establishment is running against.
Sadly, since 1976, it seems as if the GOP establishment, by their actions and words, find the most glee in running against bold (not pale pastel) conservatives.
If Gingrich has any chance of remaining viable after Florida, he will frame the race as a struggle between the establishment and the Republican base. Because Gingrich, as Palin noted, is far from a perfect anti-establishment vessel, he will not fare as well as someone who could be a better vessel.
This primary cycle, if for no other reason, is important because it gives a preview of what is on the horizon. The GOP establishment may get the win this cycle, but the win will not be clean. And it will embolden grassroots conservatives, many of whom have not yet to begun to fight, going forward.
—Tony Lee
January 30th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Gingrich and Romney Want to Say Adios to Bilingual Ballots
As Republican primary voters head to the polls in Florida on Tuesday, both GOP front-runners have endorsed a policy that would contradict existing law and could disenfranchise millions of voters across the country.
During a recent debate, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney supported getting rid of bilingual ballots when the topic was brought up by the moderator. “I would have ballots in English,” Gingrich said.
“And I think you could have programs where virtually everybody would be able to read the ballots.” Romney agreed. “I think Speaker Gingrich is right with regards to what he’s described,” he said.
January 30th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
The fact that the country would allow the tape to be sold to the highest private bidder attest to the debasement of a country run by white men.
I am a white man and I find it appalling that our government would value private ownership of such historical importance going to a single private person.
The years spent looking for the tape under the penalty of perjury and all the while General Clifton kept it secretly in his possession attest to the willingness of white men to conspire to do any despicable thing they feel they can get away with.
I will never vote for a white man to lead this country again if given another choice. I did not vote for the minority for President the last time.
But if he lives to run against the republican white alternative, he will have my vote. This kind of conspiracy causes me to doubt that that those who oppose him would stop short of any despicable deed if they thought they could pull it off.
Thomas
May 18th, 2014 at 6:37 am
Your mode of explaining everything in this piece of
writing is truly pleasant, every one can easily be aware of it, Thanks a lot.