Posted on 10/24/2012 10:50:04 PM PDT by Beaten Valve
What kind of president would Mitt Romney be? And what should we expect from Barack Obama's second term? To answer these questions, I'll draw on the work of Yale political scientist Stephen Skowronek, who has argued that presidents' fortunes depend on how they establish their political legitimacy in the particular circumstances under which which they assume power.
In this essay, I'll discuss the prospects for a Romney presidency; in the next, I'll discuss the second term of an Obama presidency.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
What I fear is four more years of Zero!
“Part of Romney’s problem is that the Republican Party’s policy solutions seem — at least outside the ranks of the faithful — increasingly ideological and out of touch. No matter what conditions the nation faces, the Republican prescription is to lower taxes, increase defense spending, and weaken the social safety net. These ideas may have made sense in the 1980s. But by 2012, they seem as irrelevant as the Democratic Party’s arguments must have seemed to many Americans in 1979.”
Tripe
All I know is, electing a president who can hide behind a race card to escape impeachment is the worst possible thing ever to happen to America.
pure 100% unadulturated bull hockey
The Atlantic - stopped reading right there.
I’m certain it’s all rubbish.
Agree! ...crockakaka...
I think Romney won’t be able to keep many of his promises.
I think his first priority will be to get the budget deficits under control and he is going to have to expend a lot of political capital to get the entitlement and defense cuts.
However, he can do a lot to help the economy by just rolling back a lot of the Obama regulations and doing everything possible to promote energy independence, which will create thousands of high paying jobs.
I think if Romney went all-in just on concentrating on energy development, that will have a massive multiplier effect.
I don’t think he will be able to roll back Obamacare, but he could probably make a deal with the Democrat Senate to reform the more unpopular parts and keep the rest.
As far as I am concerned, I am just happy that Obama won’t be able to appoint anymore federal judges.
If he can get the tax cuts, I will be more happy, but I am not counting on it.
Utter drivel lacking even so much as an adequate left margin.
You know the libs are fully expecting to get thrashed when
they grudgingly acknowledge the possibility of a Republican
win.. but, disregard its real likelihood.
Before the first debate the idea was utterly inconceivable.
No one knows what Romney’s politics are, America will just have to wait and learn them as they are revealed.
Barry has to go.
He cannot possibly be worse for America than a neo-anti-colonialist in the WH for a second term.
Romney can NOT be not worse than the “Flavor Flav” of Chicago HoodsRAts running Washington D.C...
A foreign exchange student(Obama) skating thru the hallowed halls of Harvard and Columbia probably on the down-low and so far over his head as a President.. Scoop Dog would be a better President.. Assuming a position he is not qualified for.. personally suited for.. or even intellectually capable of..
And the main stream media assuming the position of a sheep to a horny Sand Monkey.. America has gone completely crazy.. Eye rolling drooling retarded..
America has become a cartoon.. Toontown..
And I AM not amused..
I AM REPOSTING BECAUSE 100% OF ALL FREEPERS NEED TO VOTE ROMNEY/RYAN THIS NOVEMBER. To all the FR bloggers that have posted that they won’t be voting this election. Romney might not have been your 1st choice but for God’s sake do what you need to do to get Obama out of the role of America’s commander in chief. In the final debate with Romney and his opponent: Obama looked to me like he was seething with hate for Romney. To Obama, Romney represents conservatives, republicans, Tea Party members, and all who oppose him. That’s what I saw...a man who hates not only Romney but more than half of America. Romney did not show this hate back to Obama but did talk to him in a stern voice like when he talked to him concerning his apology tour. It wasn’t hate but it was like a man correcting another who is in error. Striking contrast how Obama spoke with such hatred, attacks, a petulant face, an angry stare. God save America from this hateful man. Do your duty America, vote Obama out of office.
The only thing I would add is “puckey.” Bulls don’t play “hockey.”
Thanks for the laugh. The kid who wrote this piece is going nowhere.
Great post! I’m pretty much in agreement with your take. I’m not expecting miracles from Romney, but I think he’ll roll back the worst of the Obama policies, and restore confidence to the private sector in the process. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
Why not, I wonder? The House will definitely vote to repeal. If there is a GOP-majority Senate, every candidate that I'm aware of has pledged to vote for repeal and McConnell has said he'll get it done (and that he only needs 51 votes to do it).
With a GOP Congress, why wouldn't Romney be able to rollback Obamacare?
“What I fear is four more years of Zero!”
Ditto!!
Articles like these will be increasing in the next two weeks. It’s one of the ways we know Romney is winning.
“In this essay, I’ll discuss the prospects for a Romney presidency; in the next, I’ll discuss the second term of an Obama presidency.”
...and I’m guessing that his article on a second Obama Presidency probably won’t be published until after the election.
Funny post
When Romney Obamas the GOP you may not be happy.
Well, I am assuming that the Democrats are keeping the Senate.
And unless some Democrats break free and vote to overturn it, it will remain the law of the land,
Republicans reduce Tax RATES, they do not lower Taxes. By the end of the Reagan Administration, Tax Revenue to the Federal Treasury doubled, even though the top Tax Rate was under 31%.
The same situation occurred with the G.W. Bush Tax RATE Cuts. Federal Tax Revenue increased 35% between 2003 (full implementation) and 2007.
No matter, the lies about the Bush Tax Cuts “for the rich” are never refuted. It's like Bush's name cannot be uttered by any Republican, except Fred Thompson.
As far as the other points, providing for the Common Defense is part of the Constitution and the “safety net” has become a Hammock.
I can accept that we are in a “Reaganite regime,” which followed a ~48 year reign of FDR’s New Deal regime. Ok, but you can see the author’s strong liberal in much unsubtle bs he spews. But the worse thing is the notion that Obama could be considered a reconstructionist president (starts a new regime like FDR & Reagan). The Obamaite regime? A new regime represents a profound change to something new, but clearly O is a throwback to the old, to the New Deal, the New Deal on Steroids. Remember that things like Obamacare were a dream of the New Dealers for decades. Unless the Obama Regime is full socialism, the complete collectivist reorganization of society, O is old hat.
Yet I think a new regime is in offing soon. But it will be a radical and conservative regime, modified Ron Paul actually. The conservative coalition will ultimately break up, as the Republican brand is tarnished (it’s seen as country club, not Joe the Plumber) and there are too many irreconcilable factions among the Repubs. There needs to be a new way to reach a majority of the population... a new majority. It’s not Ron Paul himself, but his (and Tea Party) ideas (though with a stronger but not neocon foreign policy, and a more moderate and pragmatic [and sometimes even progressive though still essentially libertarian] domestic policy), that will form a new regime. Reagan didn’t go far enough, he didn’t shed the heavy chains of the federal welfare and ponzi scheme entitlement state. But, in the new regime, we will understand that not only are there practical limits to idealism, but that innovative solutions involving some govt are not to be ruled out. Now, of course, we have to count on Romney to lead us out of the New Deal / Socialist mess O has wrought. My 2 cents.
The GOP, not so much. The TEA party? I think we have more than a little to fear of a Romney presidency. I hope I’m wrong. But I don;t think I will be. However it beats the alternative by a country mile.
I don't see that happening.
Wow.
About 2/3’s of the way through I figured the guy was just a pseudo intellectual Social Psychologist with a minor in Keynesian Economics and a concentration in Socialist Diversity Studies.
For each of the thousands of what pass for ideas in this weave, there is an infinite permutation of relationships contradictory to every single other version of what passes for an idea in this mesh.
And no president has ever defined his presidency by who he is (or isn’t) as a man, but is only a cog, passively defined by another endless criss crossing permutation of stages of sections of micro- and macro- cyclic historical socio-political pressures that resonate like a dull semi-echo of a badly detuned player piano sounding out a musical interpretation of Barack Obama’s domesto-foreign New Patriotic Economics in 27 Movements in C-flat-flat-diminished-thirteenth-sharp-eleven (Subdominant Minor) with Clarinet.
Then I come to read that he’s a Constitutional Law Professor with a moderate interest in technology.
Why is it that those who least understand elegantly simple nature of the Constitution are teaching it at the highest levels of education? I recently had to put of with 4 years of this species of thought from another esteemed professor of Constitutional Law.
This piece has just conveyed in 100 paragraphs an intricately complex and self-contradictory deconstruction of what a hung over 10th grader having read the Constitution’s preamble for the first time late last night would express perfectly in a half sentence while avoiding the logical errors.
I look forward to reviewing Part 2: An Obama Second First Term.
:-P
Yes and for sure. . .these stories diminishing Mitt; are counter productive. We can effect 'change' a whole lot easier and where necessary - with Mitt. We cannot do same 'without' him.
There will be no options, opportunities with Obama in charge; make that, complete charge; for the 'man who would be king'.
I'll grant the Senate races appear disappointing, but I suspect that's an illusion.
1. Recall that all the presidential polls have over-sampled Democrats -- understating the likely Romney vote. Many of the Senate polls are tantalizingly close -- just 1-2 pts. And I don't doubt the Senatorial polls are skewed in the same fashion.
2. Romney appears to be gathering momentum and could be on the verge of breaking out, on the cusp of a landslide. If that happens, his coattails will be sufficient to capture a majority of the Senate.
I'm guessing 53-54 seats -- not as many as I'd like, but better than the current pessimistic projections.
I like this position regarding the GOP:
Remove the Obama regime, and then we can argue...
Let's start with the more critical threat. No one; No Repub; can 'out Obama' - so to speak - when it comes to destroying our Country.
There is at hand; only one 'Best Bet', FOR America; and so it is; we all need to 'step up to the vote'. . .
Thanks for your earlier post, because I went to do some research to check out the Senate races, and I had assumed earlier than we weren’t as competitive, but we are actually very competitive to take back the Senate.
It isn’t a sure thing, but it looks very probable that it can happen.
My gut tells me that we are going to win, but by how much, I am not sure.
Thankyou!
We have a traitor we need to throw out of office. We might not like the tools available, but fight him and defeat him we must. This war is for the very survival of our nation. They need to get with the program or get the heck out of the way. They are like nasty, petulant children who need to grow the heck up.
Thank you. This article just cured my insomnia. Good night.
I’d much rather have to wrestle with my brother every day than fight with the home invasion gang bangers from across the tracks!
I have zeal, and relish the thought of ‘rats voting for 0zero, getting a Romney presidency, and having to wait till next year to have to see what is in it.
Please, Brer Balkin, don’t throw me in dat dere briar patch.
I love the smell of “You Republicans will be sorry” in the air. It’s the smell of Victory.
“The Atlantic” ... is that rag still in business? The 70’s called and they want their magazine back!
He may be able to get some stuff pushed through, but we'll have to unseat Dingy Harry as the top flea-bag in the Senate. On the flip side, just stopping all the grenades that Zero keeps throwing will be an improvement all in itself.
Balkin = Yale professor.
Need I say more?
Not that anyone gives crap but my vote for Mitt Milquetoast will be the last for me as a Republican. I plan on switching to Independent after this election. I cannot be in a party that has shifted to the left of where the Deomcratic Party was just 30 years ago. JFK was to the right of Mitt mAsshole. It’s a party that has very little respect for me and my values and is ashamed of me. I am tired of being abused and taken for granted. AMF Republican Party.
You are so harsh. I thought the font was acceptable.
FOUR MORE YEARS OF obama LEADS TO DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA... FOUR YEARS OR ROMNEY MEANS AN OCCASIONAL HEARTBURN ATTACK. FU LEFTARDS!
LLS
They do not get the supply side economic dynamic... BECAUSE IT WORKS AND NOTHING THE LEFT BELIEVES IN DOES!!! INCLUDING THEIR OWN VOTERS!
LLS
“Romney has a solid record”
Tell me that Romney is the only alternative to Obama but please don’t try to portray Romney’s record as anything but a liberal.
Go to F.R.s main page and click on “RomneyTruthFile”.
Facts are facts.
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