Romney builds political capital while biding time on 2012 run (defends Romneycare, Obama) (BARF)

CNN ^ | 2009-11-09 | Kevin Bohn

[rabscuttle385]

(snip)

Although some in the party believe that it should be tilting right in whom to support in future elections, he said, "I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates, referencing former President Reagan.

"He was the one who coined the term 'the big tent.' He also said that you don't build something by subtraction. So we welcome people who agree with us on most issues. Some will be very conservative on some issues. Some will be less so on others. We welcome you into the party."

(snip)

"We have a plan in Massachusetts that is working pretty well. It has flaws. It's not perfect, but it is making a difference here," he said. "We found a way to get everybody insured in the state, and we did that without a public option -- no government insurance and without the need of raising taxes."

At the same time, he is trying to use his experience on the issue as a way to attack the Obama administration.

There has been "no interest in [the] part of the administration to speak with me or come and really analyze what is really good about this system or what is really bad. Instead they have their own plan without input from Republicans, and I think that is very different from what people expected from this president."

Romney called Obama a nice guy and said there are some areas they agree on, such as the president's trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago, Illinois. But "he's just wrong on most big issues," the former head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics said of the president.

(snip)

[rabscuttle385]

[rabscuttle385]

*Ping!*

[Venturer]

I don’t care how many Republican leaders push this man I will not vote for him.

[rabscuttle385]

There has been "no interest in [the] part of the administration to speak with me or come and really analyze what is really good about this system or what is really bad. Instead they have their own plan without input from Republicans, and I think that is very different from what people expected from this president."

So basically Romney is saying that he wants to help Obama and the Democrats write their health care reform and pass Romneycare on a national scale???

[Cheap_Hessian]

The only thing in the world that makes Romney look good is Huckabee.

[4rcane]

a candidate the media like is one that will lose on the republican side

[4rcane]

whats different with romneycare, curious mind like to know

[VR-21]

I whored myself by voting for McCain last year. My excuse was that the alternative seemed unthinkable. I’m not going to do it again. If the GOP trots out another Max Headroom they can go to straight to hell.

[Jack Hammer]

The guy is clueless ambition, personified.

Let’s hope the Republican party fields a candidate in 2012 for whom consevatives can vote.

Obama’s a four-star walking disaster for America, but he could retain office in the next election if conservatives can’t be brought on board.

[4rcane]

it was palin last election that many ppl held their nose and voted for mccain, not next time if they try to push another rino

[SUSSA]

You got that right!

[A CA Guy]

Romney and Huckabee can't win, but they can spoil the chances of a worthy candidate to win to give Obama the second term IMO.

[Candor7]

If Romney is defending Obama, he doesn’t yet know his arse from a hole in the ground.

[ntmxx]

The founding fathers would have considered Romney a turncoat sympathizer, who would sell out America as any single identity class politician would; think Obama in white drag.

[HarleyD]

"I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates

I will not be supporting Romney.

[BruceS]

Romney called Obama a nice guy and said there are some areas they agree on, such as the president's trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago, Illinois. But "he's just wrong on most big issues,"

Not that I am in any sense a Romney supporter, but is this where you say he defends Obama? Calling him wrong is support?

[demkicker]

Romney must by dying to waste more of his fortune. He hasn’t got a prayer.

[element92]

>Romney and Huckabee can’t win, but they can spoil the chances of a worthy candidate to win to give Obama the second term IMO. <

that is exactly right.

[A CA Guy]

Sorry to say I know I am right.

Those two may run for their own ego, or to try and frame the next Republican platform, but if they go too far we all lose.

They should not try to pull what we in California call a McClintock.

[bustinchops]

What part of Doug Hoffman, VA and NJ does Romney not get? The base is never going to support him, and without the base the candidate loses. He can be secretary of commerce. I’m fine with that. Other than that, he needs to just give it up.

[gatorhead]

Romney can stuff his magic underwear up his ass.

[PhiloBedo]

The SRM trying to pick another McCain for the Republicans.

[sneakers]

"I whored myself by voting for McCain last year. My excuse was that the alternative seemed unthinkable. I’m not going to do it again. If the GOP trots out another Max Headroom they can go to straight to hell."

My sentiments exactly - word for word!!

I should have done a write-in vote for my favorite candidate. At least I'd have a free conscience today.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Yet another one for your ever growing truth file, Jim.

[freekitty]

Me either. This time look at the red flag. This man has already put into play a trial balloon of failure; the healthcare plan in MA.

Why in the world would anyone want to support him for POTUS?

[ejonesie22]

Every time Romney references Reagan I throw up just a little...

[Timeout]

Ooooo, the “Scary Romney Red Text”! I guess I’ll know who to vote for when related posts don’t include that alarming warning sign.

I like Romney. But I’d prefer Rudy in ‘12.

(How many heads exploded upon reading that? LOL!)

[jedi150]

Romney will lose the 2012 election IF they put him as frontman.

[ejonesie22]

I don't think any heads will explode but you are going to get a lot of WTH looks.

This is a conservative site and you are backing those that are far less than conservative.

[Diogenesis]

Romney was the pre-Obama who screwed the GOP to put Obama in the White House.

PROOF RomneyCARE is a Disaster (and he is clueless)

“Republicans warn: Rationing medicine has already begun
But in a joint opinion piece called "Govt.-Run Health Care Isn't the Answer," published
in the online version of The Advocate, a leading homosexual magazine, Sen. Tom
Coburn, R-Okla., and GOProud's Christopher R. Barron warned the homosexual
community that the Ryan White CARE Act has already demonstrated how government-
run health care has introduced rationing and waiting lists and cost the lives of the people under its provisions.”

---

“DEATH PANELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS IN MASSACHUSETTS”

---

“President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar defended the
possibility of removing organs from terminally ill patients without their permission.”

---

“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way," said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess.”

---

“State plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options( Mass. RomneyCare )”

---

"Romney Visits Nebraska, Talks Health Care [where he defends Romneycare] “

---

"Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts [Romneycare]
Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this
year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made
our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we
neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we
would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.
How did we become outlaws? “

---

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006."

---

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so. “

---

Health care in Massachusetts: a warning for America [Romney brings Mass. to its knees]
The Bay State's mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care.
Three years ago, Massachusetts adopted a plan requiring all residents to purchase health
insurance, with state subsidies for lower-income residents. But rather than creating a
utopia of high-quality affordable healthcare, the result has been the exact opposite –
skyrocketing costs, worsened access, and lower quality care."

---

"‘Severe’ doc shortage seen hiking wait time
“The shortage is getting more severe”"

---

“Health costs to rise again.( RomneyCare )
The state’s major health insurers plan to raise premiums by about 10 percent next year,
prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.”

---

“Nation’s ill-advised to follow Mass. plan [Health plan a failure]
September 17, 2009 The canary is dead.
Massachusetts, the model for the ObamaCare universal insurance plan, is the canary in
the health care coal mine. Yesterday, its obit appeared on the front page of both The Wall
Street Journal and The Boston Globe-Democrat “

---

"Bay State Insurance Premiums Highest in Country - Boston Globe August 22, 2009
Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country,
according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs
40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent..."

---

"Massachusetts: the laboratory for ObamaCare“

---

"Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times [RomneyCare]
Premiums are growing 21 to 46 percent faster than the national average"

---

"Mass. Pushes Rationing to Control Universal Healthcare Costs (RomneyCare)
A 10-member Massachusetts state healthcare advisory board unanimously recommended
that the state begin rationing healthcare to keep the state’s marquee universal health care program afloat financially.”

---

"1,000 cancer patients 'refused treatment'"

---

"Massachusetts Universal Healthcare System Breaking Down Already
ERs in Massachusetts have not seen a downturn in visits. On the contrary, it seems that ER visits are actually on the upswing in the Bay State. In fact, in 2007 they were higher than the national average by 20 percent...”

---

"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"

---

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis,
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."

---

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
… fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romney’s brainchild, Massachusetts’ “grand experiment” in “universal” health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
“RomneyCare” is threatening to bankrupt the state.“

---

"Dem Congresswoman Admits Obama Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Health Insurance Industry"

---

"Romney’s mistreatments a sick man, as Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient"

[nonliberal]

Not to defend his liberalism at all, but Rudy is a mean, vicious, nasty SOB. IMHO, that is EXACTLY what is needed. That being said, I still detest his policies.

[FastCoyote]

Please, when will Romney’s time be up?

[Timeout]

You captured exactly why I want Rudy. He wouldn’t schmooze Congress. And he’s not afraid of the media. He laughs at them!

I tried the other day to think if there is any prominent politician left who would tackle gov’t spending. Rudy is the only one who came to mind. I think it’s because he doesn’t care what the media (or anyone else) thinks of him. And he certainly isn’t afraid of the bureaucrats.

It’s a pipedream. But I sure wish he was in the running.

[Diogenesis]

Romney's time is never up. If not chosen, he will have his
minions and servants and slaves attack the GOP (like last time).

The McCain/Palin ticket was up ++8 to 10 pts. in some polls, days prior to the election.
So rather than helping the GOP, poor loser “I am Myth” Romney and
TeamROMNEY decided …… to attack Gov. Palin (and her defenseless children) to throw Election2008.

"Frum was indeed a critic of Palin, calling her nomination a "huge mistake" during an October 13 (2008, weeks before the election) Early Show appearance."

---

David Frum: "Two of our most plausible candidates for president in 2012 are leading Mormons: Mitt Romney and Utah governor Jon Huntsman."

---

David Frum: "I have a lot of regard for Mitt Romney as a man and politician… I will support him without qualm."

---

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers…
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide…
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
"Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."

---

The Palmetto Scoop reported: "One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was
the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
… aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw
that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.

---

Erick Erickson, who organized Operation Leper, said:
"These staffers are now out trying to finish her off ….hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

---

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign?
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

---

Who benefits most from Sanford meltdown? Californian (that's right) Mitt Romney

---

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

---

[Impy]

Ask a Romneycare backer and you’ll get a wonderful BS answer.

[Joe Boucher]

If this pretty boy Rino gets the nod it will tear apart the party.
I will not vote for any more RINO turds.
HEAR ME Chist?

[jcsjcm]

I’m with you all the way with this thread!

I live in MA and Romney is a disaster and I personally would never vote for him as President. Romneycare - lmao

Taxes never increased bs -
Big dig - disaster waiting to happen

[snowrip]

Note to the GOP: nominate this idiot, and the country is finished.

[St. Louis Conservative]

Mike Pence 2012!

[bw17]

“From now until November of 2010, I will be working to help conservatives across the country. The country, in my view, is being taken a direction that is very damaging, and I think people want to see a strong return of fundamental American principles.”

---

“Don’t waste any more money. Stop using the stimulus to grow government. Instead, restructure what’s left to encourage the permanent acquisition of jobs,”

---

“We found a way to get everybody insured in the state, and we did that without a public option — no government insurance and without the need of raising taxes.”

---

“I think he(Obama)has made America less safe in that our friends are more concerned about the reliability of the United States.”

---

“This president says he needs some time. Four months? Nine months? We have men and women dying in Afghanistan. They need to know if they’re going to get reinforcements and the support they need, or is this president going to take a different course?”

(Romney still gets my vote as the nominee. But I’d really like to see him endorse Marco Rubio down in Florida to convince people like you that he’s not a fence-sitter.)

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

but is this where you say he defends Obama? Calling him wrong is support?

Well, you need to look at the bigger picture.

The country is going to Hell and General McCrystal in Afghanistan haven't talked to the President since April, at the time. But Obama has time to play Chicago politics by shilling for the stupid Olympic Games.

It just makes Romney look bad to conservatives, who don't want to be Obama's "buddy," and sure as Hell don't think he's "cool."

[Le Chien Rouge]

If Romney is the GOP nominee, I will vote 3rd party.

[Uri’el-2012]

If Romney is the GOP nominee, I will vote 3rd party.

If Huckabee is the nominee, I will find a follower of the Christ to vote for.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

[HamiltonJay]

Agreed, I will fight this guy with every ounce of my body, this guy is no heir to Reagan, and for him to try to sell himself as one is no less slimy than Fauxbama or Pelosi lying about their actions.

This guy is not a conservative, he can talk pretty rhetoric all he wants, but his actions prove otherwise.

No conservative, none can put forth a law that basically taxes you for breathing such as Romneycare does, and claim to be a conservative.

If the democrats were to pick our nominee, this would be the guy they’d chose. His actions do not match his rhetoric, and never will.

[TitansAFC]

-—”.....You captured exactly why I want Rudy. He wouldn’t schmooze Congress. And he’s not afraid of the media. He laughs at them!......”-—

“Rudy for President” is the battle cry of the RINO. You are SOOOOO at the wrong site for pushing Rudy Giuliani as the GOP nominee in 2012.

Rudy Giuliani as the GOP nominee would be the only imaginable scenario in which I would find myself forced to vote for, and pavement walk for, Barack Obama. Hell, I’d take a week’s vacation to volunteer for Obama in a swing state.

As the non-GOP nominee, there are many things I like about Rudy. But the day he becomes our Presidential nominee is the day the GOP leaves me. This is a party of issues, not a cult of personality. I would rather lose an election to save the Conservative movement than sacrifice the movement to win one election.

If I have to choose between two liberals, I’ll just pick the one who’ll give me “free” stuff. Rudy is a fun character, and a brass knuckles guy who could teach the image-conscious GOP some lessons about handling the press. But he is not Presidential material, and would be the death knell of the Conservative movement as we know it.

[jersey117]

Defending obama is hardly going to get him the nomination. We cannot allow them to pick our candidate again. Too much at stake.

[Diogenesis]

"We have a plan in Massachusetts that is working pretty well",
the carpetbagger RINO Bishop, hiding in La Jolla, smirked.

[trisham]

Bump!

[Timeout]

You’re welcome to your preference, I to mine.

Do you have any idea how irksome it is to say I’m “at the wrong site”? I was here long before you joined. And I must say I enjoyed FR a lot more before the “purification” started. I guess I’m just not into group-think.

[TitansAFC]

I respect your right to a different viewpoint, but “purification” is a bit of a herring in this particular case

“Purification” makes for a nice pious plea, but you have to understand the difference between having no room for any differences at any level (”Newt Gingrich is a RINO!” “I’ll never vote for Charlie Crist for Senate!”), and not being willing to support for PRESIDENT a candidate who has been so very consistent an enemy of so very many key Conservative issues as Rudy Giuliani. Such opposition is hardly the unreasonable demands of a puritan grassroots.

I get a lot of flack for supporting the idea of Moderate Republicans in deep blue states (hell, I’d support Rudy for Senator of NY), and objecting to the purging of the center. But my gosh, man, there wouldn’t even be a POINT to the GOP anymore if Rudy Giuliani were the GOP nominee for PRESIDENT. No point whatsoever.

Very different from “purification.”