Posted on 07/06/2012 8:25:55 AM PDT by tsowellfan
Obamacare tax confusion a warning sign: the peril of playing it safe.
Thomas E. Dewey.
The president who might have been.
The Romney campaign's stumble over Obamacare (it's a penalty…no…wait…it's a tax! Yes! Yes! We're sure now…it's a tax!) was both unnecessary and avoidable.
If the Romney campaign isn't careful (as our friends at the Wall Street Journal noted here), the morning after the 2012 election they may well find themselves linked forever to the famously hapless 1948 campaign of Tom Dewey. The campaign everyone expected to be a hands-down winner -- which turned into the greatest upset in American political history at the hands of underdog President Harry Truman.
As the famous George Santayana quote reminds: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
So in light of the Romney stumble, perhaps the most pertinent question about the past that was the shocking Dewey loss is: why? Why exactly did Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the man every political analyst in the country believed was a certifiable winner over Truman -- lose?
Read more at link...
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
An Obama win in November means the end of the Republic. Dewey may have been the biggest upset in US political history, but an Obama win will mean US political history is over.
The main glaring difference is most aren’t assuming Romney to be a “hands-down” winner in November. He may have a chance to (with a miracle or two) pull out a close win, but there’ll be no blowout victory. As such, Romney should campaign like he’s a nagging few points behind Obama, because... he is.
The President's policies have not gotten America working again. He is going to have to stand up and take responsibility for that.
THAT'S IT??? He will NEVER win with tepid responses like that. But is he even capable of it? Nice guys finish last.
He seems to be putting all of his eggs into the economic basket.
WE know what was said, because we follow this stuff, but most folks just can't be bothered. They'll start thinking about it, at the earliest, around the time of the political conventions, but probably not before.
It’s Facebook! What did you expect, a full campaign speech?
I agree that Romney must have more of an edge about his campaign. However, it is understandable that he missed on this particular issue because the MSM lets the 0bama campaign get away with pure doubletalk nonsense. How do you effectively counter your opponent when he is allowed to say Obamacare is a tax, no penalty, no both, no neither.
I'm sure the Obama campaign is more than willing to tell those voters not paying attention right now what Romney has said about everything over the past week, month and all the way back to his debate with Ted Kennedy. It's out there on video. No doubt they will be TV ads running 24/7 in October and brought up by Obama during the debates.
Simple answer should be: “Tax, penalty....who cares? Its still a lousy bill!”
The NEW mantra this week is...
"Romney is the most secretive candidate we've seen probably since Richard Nixon"
They are claiming that Romney is HIDING is records.
By the end of the weekend Romney will be on the defensive.
If we cannot define it, we cannot identify the best way to get rid of it.
Romney to Obama: “Here’s my school records and my birth certificate. Where’s yours?”
“Tax, penalty....who cares? Its still a lousy bill! And here's why....”
Happy? :o)
Example: “The economy is stalled, employment shows no sign of recovery, and the Obama administration is working on UN small arms treaty that will restrict our 2nd Amendment rights.”
Let that commie bastard answer every point in that short blurb. Tomorrow you can hit him with another one along the same lines.
Example : Iran is threatening to block oil shipments, the Obama administration is blocking domestic drilling and pipelines, an oil shortage will crash an already weak economy and job market.”
Lather, rinse, repeat, everyday. Force the liberal press to report everything you say.
That's the problem.
It may be easy for you to say "why" (which you have not) as you attached to particular past accomplishments as Gov. of the State of Mass.
Romney is not politically free to say "why". The problem is, he was planning on the SCOTUS to declare a NATIONAL version of RomneyCare with an individual mandate to be unconstitutional .
Now that it is considered constitutional by the highest court of the land (a curve ball to Romney) he's trying to figure out how to approach this without putting himself in a bad situation with his own RomneyCare.
That's why Romney cannot get past "it needs to be repealed" to say WHY it needs to be repealed.
Romney is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Romney expected that a national version of RomneyCare would be shot down as ucontirutional by the SCOTUS.
He got caught with his pants down. Now he's forced to run against his won healthcare plan since ObamaCare has been decided by the court to be constitutional.
Basket #1) He vowed to repeal ObamaCare but never really planned that he would have to do it. He figured the Supreme Court would take care of ObamaCare for him by declaring it to be Unconstitutional.
Basket #2) The economy
Now Romney's only got one basket. The national version of RomneyCare has been declared Constitutional. This was a curve ball and unexpected. The court sucked the air out of his balloon. Now he has to either run against the decision of the SCOTUS or he has to run against his own health-care bill (RomneyCare).
The only difference between RomneyCare and ObamaCare a couple of weeks ago was the question of Constitutionality. Well, that question has been answered.
Now Romney needs to face telling Americans why his health-care is NOT a good bill.
Bingo!
His advisers were more interested in defending Romney/Romneycare than they were in attacking Obama.
He’s fighting with one hand tied behind his back.
Obama to Romney: “Here’s my income tax records and my records as President. Where’s your income tax records and your records as Governor of Massechusetts?”
Actually I’m not sure that Romney isn’t doing the right thing. All he has to do is show that he’s not a raving lunatic and Obama should be sent packing. It’s Romney’s to lose. I could be wrong though. Obama’s team could still pull it off through some real hardball stuff.
I agree. While he stumbled a little bit on the follow up to the USSC decision, he wasn’t wrong until his advisers started the ‘not a tax’ meme at the beginning of this week. Now, he’s gotten on the right track.
Outside of that, they’ve done a very nice job the last 2 months in rapid response and with keeping Obama on the defensive and/or forcing them to make ridiculous statements that voters are not buying. Obama sits at 44%, which is nearly a guaranteed loss if he doesn’t move up into the high 40s by the convention.
To your point, yes, Romney has to show that he is a viable alternative and wins. He’s doing that. I do think they’ll need to land some big punches down the stretch to prevent the media and Thug-Bama from playing their games, but they’ve been doing a pretty good job of that over the past two months.
Now that it is considered constitutional by the highest court of the land (a curve ball to Romney) he's trying to figure out how to approach this without putting himself in a bad situation with his own RomneyCare.
That's why Romney cannot get past "it needs to be repealed" to say WHY it needs to be repealed.
Romney is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Fire the asshat who said it was a penalty. That’s the second mistake he’s made with his big mouth (the first being the “etch-a-sketch” remark).
That's because that's when folks will be paying attention. Romney will be buying lots of ad time during October, as well.
Well, yeah. But the issue is (as you stated) people are not paying attention to what Romney has said in the past and my response was that there are videos out there which I'm sure Obama will use to expose Romney's multiple choice of every issue.
Regarding Romney's october ads (which are irrelevent to what we're talking about) it would be nice to see him use those ads to say more than "vote for me because I am not Obama". Is this man another McCain or what? I mean, all I'm hearing on the news is "Romney's trying to run against President Obama's healthcare which was based on his own healthcare in Mass" and "Romney's the most secretive candidate since Nixon".
Time to put on the gloves now before he's defined FOR the American people by the opposition. Once defined, it sticks.
Romney: Here’s what happened to employment in Massachusetts under me. Now how about you, Barack???
Trying to show Romney is a waffle is of course self contradictory to trying to show Romney is a right wing nut.
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