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Understanding Romney: One size does not fit all
THE HILL ^ | - 01/22/10 | By Bernie Quigley

Posted on 01/22/2010 6:06:18 PM PST by restornu

As The Wall Street Journal points out in an opinion this morning, this is a good day not only for Scott Brown, the new senator from Massachusetts, but for Mitt Romney as well. Glenn Beck doesn’t trust Brown, he says. But with Brown toting friends like the popular former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld, John McCain and Romney around on his bus, it might not be such a good day for Glenn Beck.

The WSJ’s Kim Strassel pointed out that Romney’s closest aides flooded to Mr. Brown, bringing with them the savvy of his national operation.

“From a perch atop his Free and Strong America PAC, Mr. Romney has been raising money, nurturing his team, keeping himself in the national spotlight. With the Massachusetts Senate race, he sensed an unexpected opportunity to step to the front of the GOP presidential ranks,” she writes.

I doubt that the Tea Party’s tent will fold with the election of Brown, but something else has happened: The river that runs between traditional Republicans and insurgent conservative populists now has a bridge in Scott Brown. In fact, it has another bridge in Virginia with the new governor, Bob McDonnell, who will give the Republicans’ response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Wednesday. The insurgents have built a new base for organization and now, with the election of Brown and McDonnell, it is being absorbed into the mainstream.

But when the very first thinking about regional identity started to surface here in New England as a militant defense against federal overreach, Romney was the governor of Massachusetts and he was already incorporating the same elements of thinking, not as revolutionary polemic, but as practical and effective management strategies here in Massachusetts.

Thus the phrase, “One size does not fit all,” which he began to use as governor, used throughout his presidential campaign and used again this last week in a Fox Business interview. It is his theme song. Texas Gov. Rick Perry now uses the phrase as well, and so does Sarah Palin.

Republican pundits report that Romney’s stock has been down because of RomneyCare, the healthcare program that Romney instituted in Massachusetts. Some of the features suggest ObamaCare, and as large numbers oppose ObamaCare’s vast federal spending, the thinking goes, they would therefore oppose RomneyCare. But that misses the point.

“The bill that was being pushed in Washington was not good for Massachusetts,” Brown said after his election. “It may have been good for other states, but we already had everything and a lot of what was being proposed.”

That is just the point in Romney’s thinking about healthcare: What is good for one state and region is not necessarily good for others. Romney is in fact in the avant garde with this thinking, which has become the base camp of the states’-sovereignty movement.

Romney was unique in the history of Massachusetts governors in that he came to us from the west. He had personal experience in the Western states, in Michigan and in Massachusetts, where he went to college.

My observation here when he was governor was that he had that rare quality which Zen Buddhists call “beginner’s mind.” He does not rebel from new ideas and new people but continually incorporates aspects of new thinking in his own ideas to make a better fit. And he is aware that the country has changed since 1776, when the west was forest and later when it was frontier, and even the 1930s, when the vast majority of Americans worked in one of two places, the floor of the factory or the field.

One-size-fits-all-federalism might have been the perfect system then. But today for a country as full and rich and varied and alive as ours, the old system is a disaster. Romney was the first to catch on.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: aig4romney; badgovromney; bigdigromney; carpetbaggerromney; dnc4romney; du4romney; fakebadgeromney; flipflopromney; gaymarriage; ma2010; mittfakescredit; mitthogslimelight; mlk4romney; msm4romney; nra4romney; pimpromney; pimpromneyalways; pimpromneyhere; pimpromneynow; polyamory4romney; promise4romney; pushpollromney; revisehistory4mitt; romney; romney2012; romney2lose; romney4romney; romneyantigop; romneyantipalin; romneybotalert; romneybots; romneycare; romneydeathpanels; romneykilledgrandma; romneymarriage; romneystealcredit; romneystinks; slickwillard; socializedmedicine; stenchofromney; truthers4romney
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To: restornu

Mitt’s done. He’s got the slow motion disaster of RomneyCare chained to his ankles. It has hung on, poorly, weakly with Federal ...bailouts. Much like Mitt, Bush/Obama like wanted to bailout Detroit, and as he bailed out the Utah Olympics.

But, of course Mitt is a ‘conservative’.

Sarah is supporting Perry in Texas. GW Bush, the man that doubled the nations debt, and Mitt are supporting the plastic, old, hack, KB Hutchinson.

Old ‘compassionate conservative’ ( unless you are a taxpayer) love spending money.


21 posted on 01/22/2010 7:37:15 PM PST by Leisler (We are in the best of hands)
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To: restornu
So the argument for the Mittster is (I paraphrase):

Hey, how about me? I can't suck as bad as you say because you like some people who will have their picture taken with me?

One BIG difference between Mitt and Brown (and Palin): Authenticity!

Mitt, Schmuckabee and McCain are inauthentic, finger-to-the-wind phonies who think nothing of lying to serve their selfish purposes. Not an authentic conservative bone in their bodies.

22 posted on 01/22/2010 8:16:08 PM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Servant of the Cross

I know you folks don’t understand the nature or the heart of the LDS but as a child of God we are to uplift one another and root for their better nature to surface.

Palin and Brown even in their understanding know that as Americans we need to encourage others to have faith there is a better way even McCain or others and have faith the Lord can change hearts and also to be able to discern those who have no desire to change but to destroy this nation.

those who do not walk the walk will drif away but in the mean time if you Love your Lord feed His sheep nourish one another!

My words are ment to be more ecumenical than proselytize.

Lets encourage each other to choose and do the right thing.

The most important things that who ever is president has a true desire to lead this country back and to the constitution and build a firmer foundation.


23 posted on 01/22/2010 8:49:42 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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To: restornu

Slick Willard = Epic Fail Socialist CON-ARTIST


24 posted on 01/22/2010 11:43:38 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: restornu
I know you folks don’t understand the nature or the heart of the LDS ...

I suspect that you don't understand the nature or heart of those of us who wisely fear and reject Romney on the basis of his politics, which are demonstrably nanny state big government. His LDS, your LDS, and his supporters' LDS status is of zero importance to many of us because many of us know and have lived among LDS and former LDS folks who run the gamut from creeps and sleazeballs to wonderful, honest, and valued friends and co-workers. Individual LDS followers are no more uniform in their "child of God uplifting one another" ethic than Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, Jews, or the individual members of any other religious group.

Lets encourage each other to choose and do the right thing. The most important things that who ever is president has a true desire to lead this country back and to the constitution and build a firmer foundation.

You're stating the obvious and simultaneously ignoring it. I and many others here are encouraging YOU and Romney fans to do the right thing and FACE UP to the fact that your guy is a bad choice. He has demonstrated a propensity to do the opposite of what you and anyone with sense deems "the most important things that whoever is president" should do.

Maybe you ought to drop your fixation with the LDS thing and start looking at the politics, instead.

25 posted on 01/22/2010 11:52:49 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent.)
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To: restornu
The WSJ’s Kim Strassel pointed out that Romney’s closest aides flooded to Mr. Brown, bringing with them the savvy of his national operation.

It appears that their SAVVINESS has increased a LOT since Mitt's FAILED Presidential bid!

(Could it be because Scott is ACTUALLY Conservative compared to MITT?)

26 posted on 01/23/2010 5:26:17 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: dajeeps
“One-size-fits-all-federalism might have been the perfect system then. But today for a country as full and rich and varied and alive as ours, the old system is a disaster. Romney was the first to catch on.”

No; Joseph Smith 'saw' the Constitution hanging by a thread first.

27 posted on 01/23/2010 5:27:43 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
Who typed this for you?

You can't string this many words together without scrambling some...

28 posted on 01/23/2010 5:29:27 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
those who do not walk the walk will drif away but in the mean time if you Love your Lord feed His sheep nourish one another!

I rest my case.

29 posted on 01/23/2010 5:30:53 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Diogenesis


 
 "And I want to PROFUSELY thank Mitt - my main man!   Without Him, behind the scenes, today would have been a LOT different!" 
 
       Thanks for those kind words, Scott.
(No, I'm NOT playing with your butt; I'm holding your coattail!)

30 posted on 01/23/2010 5:33:55 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
We have only one Constitution, one Bill Of Rights, and it must prevail on every square inch of American soil. The Bill of Rights cannot be neutered by popular demand, just because a majority of people in a particular city or state don't like what it says. The Bill of Rights protects the individual citizen against excesses of government, AND excesses of democracy.

Romney is pontificating politically at the expense of constitutional principles, he is making excuses not to protect and defend The Constitution, and asking everyone else in the GOP to accept it as a platform.

Racial segregation was by popular, democratic, demand at one time, but the Bill of Rights does not allow it, and segragation was ended. How can anyone still claim that it is legal to deprive American citizens of any right, anywhere, because "most of the voters want it that way"?

31 posted on 01/23/2010 7:07:24 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: Finny

His LDS, your LDS, and his supporters’ LDS status is of zero importance to many of us because many of us know and have lived among LDS and former LDS folks who run the gamut from creeps and sleazeballs to wonderful, honest, and valued friends and co-workers. Individual LDS followers are no more uniform in their “child of God uplifting one another” ethic than Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, Jews, or the individual members of any other religious group.

***

How can I say this without offending?

It is my experience I had as part my conversion that instead of disowning someone who is not in lock step with the template. One should enable encourage another to rise to their better nature.

I also want to make known the LDS don’t claim to have any market on this it is just when one is walking the walk they are more likely to practice these attributes and maybe the reason might be because there seems to be more emphases of this in our lessons.

I also want to acknowledge that I have recognized others who also have employed these qualities who are not of my faith.

I am sure we all have a few special someone in our life be it a teacher, boss, friend, parent that always make us awared that there is a better choice instead of trying to undermine or destroy because they did not like what they did!

This was the only point I was trying to make!

I can not read the hearts and minds of many, I do have discernment when someone is trying to annihilate this country which Obama Inc is trying to do!

I know that should Obama Inc remove many Democrats vs that we too would also like to see go.

But there will be a differents in what each of us want those of us who love our country want to replace a Reid with someone who will addhere to the Principles of the Constitution.

Obama Inc will give someone like Reid, Polosi, Schulmer, Boxer Durbin etc the kiss of death hoping to replace with one of his Mao type people!


32 posted on 01/23/2010 2:40:57 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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To: restornu

I already understand Mitt...have for a long time. He has no political conservative core values but will support anything for political expediency. He’s a fake, an empty suit who is a big-government solution loving socialist who at various times has supported abortion rights, gay rights, and limits on the right to arm oneself.

For a person with conservative core values...Mitt, not an option. Next.


33 posted on 01/23/2010 2:46:40 PM PST by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
Romney is pontificating politically at the expense of constitutional principles, he is making excuses not to protect and defend The Constitution, and asking everyone else in the GOP to accept it as a platform.

***

How do you arrive at that conclusion?

___

How can anyone still claim that it is legal to deprive American citizens of any right, anywhere, because "most of the voters want it that way"?

***

I am trying to figure out what you mean?

Thank you for stating your reason instead of just name calling etc as what many rants are on this subject.

34 posted on 01/23/2010 2:49:46 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: restornu

...oh and how could I fail to mention his budget-disintegrating, government-mandating, big-government RomneyCare boondoggle.


36 posted on 01/23/2010 2:53:23 PM PST by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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To: restornu

Maybe you should rest your udders!:)


37 posted on 01/23/2010 2:55:22 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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To: big'ol_freeper

...oh and how could I fail to mention his budget-disintegrating, government-mandating, big-government RomneyCare boondoggle.

***

Why not big’ol_freeper

Scott Brown also mention it in many of his talks that he also voted for it and won in Mass imagine that!


38 posted on 01/23/2010 2:57:22 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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To: Elise

forgot to ping you Elise the cow

Maybe you should rest your udders!:)


39 posted on 01/23/2010 2:59:08 PM PST by restornu (Government Welfare Violates the US Constitution & the Lord's Way of Caring for Those in Need)
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To: restornu

Yes he won, and he is also not a conservative. Conservatives don’t win in Massachusetts. Moderates can win, but not conservatives. He supports the RomneyCare boondoggle.

Obama won election last in 2008. By your statement I should be supporting him because he won.

Take your blinders off and stop sipping the kook aid. You are selling your conservative soul for parochial reasons.


40 posted on 01/23/2010 3:13:46 PM PST by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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