Posted on 10/21/2012 2:04:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Romney stumbled on Libya because the GOP is reliant on a right-wing media machine that has no ideas, just scandals
Why did Mitt Romney embarrass himself on Libya in this week’s debate? One possibility: Because he, and the Republican Party in general, have opened up an alarming policy deficit between themselves and Barack Obama and the Democrats.
What I mean by that is that Romney, Republicans and conservatives have, in case after case, simply given up on crafting viable public policy. That wasn’t always the case. When Ronald Reagan took office, conservative think tanks were ready with a host of ideas for transforming what government did and the way it did it. As recently as the 2000 campaign, George W. Bush campaigned on, for example, No Child Left Behind and a faith-based initiative. Does Romney have anything similar he’s talking about during this campaign? Not that I’ve heard.
What he’s substituted for policy is scandal, on the one hand, and symbolism, on the other.
Republicans’ reliance on a scandal framework is most obvious in their attacks on Barack Obama. The stimulus is reduced in this point of view to “Solyndra.” Energy? One pipeline to Canada.
Most of the time, there’s almost no real attempt to construct an argument against actual policies, to treat government programs proposed by the president as policies that one might agree or disagree with. That’s not always true – a lot of the arguments against the Affordable Care Act, and some of the case against the stimulus, really were policy-based. But more often Republicans have tried to frame their attacks around scandal.
The other frame they’ve used, especially on foreign policy and national security, is pure symbolism. Often, as Paul Waldman pointed out this week, that’s reduced down to the level of individual words. It’s bad to apologize. It’s important to speak up for Iranian protesters.
It’s imperative to never, ever disagree with Israel. And Waldman missed the big one: It’s absolutely critical that the president always, always, no matter what, and in every possible way, refer to the United States as “exceptional.” Don’t forget: Many of the present generation of Republicans were trained by Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz to believe in the power of certain words. They may sincerely believe that public policy really does only consist of finding the words that will “force” opponents to fear them and allies to be comforted.
And so, scandal and symbolism became a trap that turned the disaster in Benghazi from an opportunity to score points for Mitt Romney into a fiasco.
How? First, because instead of questioning the policies – including the initial intervention – that brought the Obama administration to the death of an ambassador, the immediate instinct of the Romney Republicans was to turn it into scandal. A coverup! Barack Obama and the State Department said one thing in the immediate aftermath, but some of those things turned out to be wrong. Now, a less scandal-obsessed party might have either moved quickly past that seemingly unimportant discrepancy and focused on how the problem happened in the first place, or investigated whether initial chaos was a sign of mismanagement. But neither of those fits the scandal frame as well.
Meanwhile, the focus on symbolic words in lieu of policy played right into the scandal frame in this case. The administration was denying terrorism! Because, er, they didn’t use the word “terrorist.” Sure, they said “act of terror,” which to most of us sounds about the same, but that’s because most of us aren’t obsessively focused on the symbolic importance of using the correct words all the time as the main responsibility of the president with regard to foreign policy and national security.
Most of us, that is, who are not trapped within the conservative closed information feedback loop, where Solyndra and Fast and Furious were major Obama administration scandals, and where, as Paul Ryan put it in his debate with Joe Biden, it’s obvious that Obama’s foreign policy is unraveling “before our eyes” and “as we turn on our television screens these days.”
Of course, figuring out what any of that really means would take, well, some serious policy analysis. But that’s exactly what Mitt Romney and the Republicans just don’t have these days.
But at least they know they shouldn’t apologize for it!
Is this guy for real? I’m reading his words in stunned amazement. Romney was embarrassed? When Obama lied his way through the debate and virtually everybody but dimwits like Bernstein refuse to acknowledge Obama’s lying? Republicans don’t have a plan? I can’t believe libs are this stupid. Bernstein and Dem like him are the reason this country is in the mess it is.
“Meanwhile, the focus on symbolic words in lieu of policy”
Like the word “binder” perhaps?
get real.
blessings, bobo
Ah, yes, we yearn for the good old days of the Clinton Administration and "move on, nothing to see here".
As if Obama has any policies to run on...
He’s flat-out lied in two debates about the last four years.
LOL
Amazing that this administration goes out its way, sometimes way way out its way to tell a LIE..
Its like ALL news from these people in the White House is agitprop.. or propaganda...
Not only the White House but the entire Executive branch..
This White House and executive branch is so cold war “Russian-like” its scary..
With Commissars(Tsars) and everything..
Its SOoo similar its uncanny.. meaning totally on purpose..
More amazing than that is so many republicans completely ignorant of it.. or feigning ignorance..
I can see no other explanation that a big part of republican hierarchy IS COMPLICIT with it..
Its like the John Birch Society fell in a black hole..
Since almost everything they predicted has come true AND even MORE THAN THAT..
John Birch did not have the internet... or an in your face proud Ultra liberal progressive(communist) President..
Kennedy, Johnston, Carter and CLintoon slowly converted Americans into Socialists.. it appears..
If your not worried about this election you should be..
AMerica may not have its nose full of Zero YET..
IF a fair election is even POSSIBLE NOW...
>>Being progressive means never having to live in Realville.
So true. I have to wonder which debate this author saw.
As far as stumbling goes, I’d say that after being ganged up on and blindsided with a rabbit punch, Romney “stumbled” but did not fall down. Anyone who was blindsided like that would be momentarily stunned. He recovered quickly and went on to win.
Sorry, Dems, saying things over and over doesn’t make them true.
IMHO if Romney goes at this from the Position that this is the result of the Presidents Ideology it will Nail Obama to the wall,My point is that Anyone who has been paying any attention to This administration over the past 4 years KNOWS he is Sympathetic to the Muslims.
Romney should give a Brief Synopsis of all Obamas Actions that demonstrate this,Fort Hood Shootings,Failure to Call it Islamic terrorism,Trying Combatants in Civivlian Courts,The release Of Prisoners who go back on the Battlefield and Kill Americans,The Censoring of all Government documents that Mention Islamic Terrorism, They Refuse to Call out who we are Fighting against.
Then you go to the Main FACTS that have emerged from the Stevens “sensitive” Documents sent from Bengahzi in the Weeks before his Murder, The ones that Mention that the recent attacks have NOT been Random but Organized and Coordinated,the statements That ISLAMIC EXTREMIST elements are GAINING strength and Security is NOT sufficient,THE ALQUEDA flag has Been Flying over Govt Buildings. The American Red Cross attacks were done by Extremists.
Then State that did you hear the President Mention Alqueda ,or Islamic Extremists in the Rose Garden statement?
All youm hear is The Intelligence we Had AT THE TIME! How about the Documents Labeled “Sensitive” From Ambassador Stevens HIMSELF On the Ground, The one In the Heat of the Battle and Living and seeing him for himself? He mentions Alqueda,Islamic Extremists over and Over,But Neither the President, The Secretary of State, The UN Ambassador in appearance after appearance never ONCE mention Alqueda or islamic Extremists ONCE. This IS the Presidents Ideology, Censor what doesnt fit HIS narrative.He has Lied to the American People,He said in the last debate he was offended that anyone would suggest that he would Mislead the american People about this. Well Mr. President you owe at the Very least an Apology to the American People for Misleading them and at worst,Intenionally withholding pertinent information that does not fit you reelection Narative.
Pathetic drivel, this kid must be a recent English major. He must be one of the budding young geniuses of the left. An emerging talent we
The first stage of the “filtering” process is the choice what to report and what NOT to report.
When you don’t hear/read stated facts and commentary at all, there can’t even be a personal vetting process.
People who get their news solely from a DBM newspaper or DBM TV news are woefully uninformed.
Example: The day after the Congressional hearings on Libya, the NY Times did not even have a report about the hearings on the front page.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/nyt-eds-no-shame-in-libya-hearings-138425.html
Romney stumbled on Libya because the GOP is reliant on a right-wing media machine that has no ideas, just scandals ..................................................... LOL, LOL, LOL, love it! Just like every time a nut case shoots someone of political importance,or a mass shooting, it’s Palin or the Tea Party that is immediately the blame ad nauseum. Where do these Progressive reporters get their degrees, from a lunatic asylum that awards degrees in Literary Lunacy?
My thoughts exactly.
Man I’m so grateful these commies are telling us where we are going wrong!!!
Obama is a sh!theal and a lying bastard (he was conceived out of wedlock and his parents’ marriage was not legal as daddy was a bigamist/polygamist).
Baraq Hussein Ubama says that his policy of regime change in Libya was “peaceful” and an alternative way without sending our troops into battle. He claimed no American lives were lost.
Lies lies and damned lies.
We provided air support for the coup on the ground (something JFK refused to do at the Bay of Pigs).
A POW named Momar Gaddafi was tortured, raped, abused, and ultimately murdered with the approval of the US Hate Department. Hillary Clinton chortled, “We came, We saw, HE DIED!”
We’ve lost a US ambassador and several other Americans in the resulting terrorist “insurgency”.
FUBO
All of these are in our blood, fought hard for by our ancestors, we are not the kind of people that will bend without a fight. If the "progressives" think that it will be a cake walk to set themselves up as the rulers over the little people they have a rude awakening coming.
What are they thinking? We all have guns and our own property that we can legally protect with our guns. How do they think they are going to rule over us? Sign an executive order overturning the first and second amendments? Then come to our homes and enforce it? Just andedotal but when my collegues, friends and I talk about this 100% say bring it, come and get my gun "from my cold dead hands."
Bernstein sounds like another irrational gay pseudo, Jino by name reporter.
Makes one wonder if he did this mess in a hot tub with Jason Blair.
A strong corroboration of both your premise and your conclusion is available from examination of a cold case, the deliberate, many-handed, witting and willing destruction of Sen. Joe McCarthy by the liberal superstructure and their Communist allies.
For which we now have helpfully available -- fatally for their cause, and for their long-running, adamant, faux-indignant polemics -- the Rosetta text of the Venona Papers, which give the Communists and their liberal tools the lie.
Too, liberals have never, ever rushed forward to explain the presence at McCarthy's table of both Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy.
good point.
Of course they aren't. They're liars, and quite confident liars at that. The guy's a polemicist, earning his keep by fighting for The Won, just as David Horowitz described in 2000, in CW's post quoting him above.
That’s one heck of a bubble Salon lives in!
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