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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
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1 posted on 01/22/2010 6:06:18 PM PST by restornu
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2 posted on 01/22/2010 6:06:45 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’m with Glenn on that one.


3 posted on 01/22/2010 6:10:08 PM PST by GeronL (http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
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To: restornu

“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.”

Huge OUCH!

No one who has an idea that the constitution is outmoded and the founders are no longer relevant will EVER get my vote. He can pack his RINO rear back to Mass. and stay there.


4 posted on 01/22/2010 6:12:27 PM PST by dajeeps
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To: dajeeps
Not a huge ouch. Here's why:

"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."

My great State Senator is the sole sponsor of a bill that recognizes this about health care in my state.

5 posted on 01/22/2010 6:15:24 PM PST by GOP_Lady
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To: GOP_Lady
Let me add to it:

"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."

6 posted on 01/22/2010 6:17:19 PM PST by GOP_Lady
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To: restornu

If he’s hanging around with Romney and McCain, now I don’t trust him.


7 posted on 01/22/2010 6:19:02 PM PST by NavVet ("You Lie!")
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To: restornu; Leisler; greyfoxx39; Tennessee Nana; EternalVigilance; Reagan Man; Elsie; ...
FReepers, please note that the original WSJ article trashes Romney (sore loser, dictator, scene stealer).

“Mr. Romney's subsidized coverage is meanwhile doing what entitlements do: crowding
out private insurers, compounding the cost explosion, walking the state toward rationing.
So long as the former governor clings to these central points of his health plan, he's on
the wrong side of free-market policy and public opinion.

This isn't going away for Mr. Romney either, which is why he'd do better by writing off
his own plan as a mistake that Democrats have made worse, and replacing it with a
proposal that deregulates and reforms the private market to lower insurance costs
(thereby achieving greater coverage).”


8 posted on 01/22/2010 6:21:20 PM PST by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: GOP_Lady

I guess I jumped the gun. I don’t have a problem with states doing it themselves.


9 posted on 01/22/2010 6:23:00 PM PST by dajeeps
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To: All
Here is the link to Kimberly Strassel's article in the WSJ mentioned in this article:

Massachusetts' Other GOP Winner
10 posted on 01/22/2010 6:26:15 PM PST by GOP_Lady
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To: dajeeps

That’s just fine and very understandable.

No need to think you jumped the gun, because you didn’t.

I feel the same way as you do concerning nationalizing something like this for a country as large as ours.


11 posted on 01/22/2010 6:29:09 PM PST by GOP_Lady
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To: Diogenesis

Diogenesis you seem to be Bipolar

12 posted on 01/22/2010 6:35:27 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; Leisler; greyfoxx39; Tennessee Nana; EternalVigilance; Reagan Man; Elsie; ...

UNDERSTANDING CHAMELEON ROMNEY

Look how every editorial cartoonist views the clown Romney. Every single one.


13 posted on 01/22/2010 6:41:20 PM PST by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: Diogenesis; All; Lurker

Because it’s kinda hard to figure out if you don’t have it written down)

1. Mitt Romney is EEEEEEEEEEVILLLLLLLL! (But his buddy Scott Brown, his ideological twin, is super-keen!)

2. John McCain is EEEEEEEEEEVILLLLLLLL! (But Sarah Palin and Scott Brown, who not only endorse McCain but are actively campaigning for him, are the hope and future of the GOP)

The above doublethink is VERY IMPORTANT to instill in your mind if you don’t want to lose it when reading FR.


14 posted on 01/22/2010 6:43:12 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; Leisler; greyfoxx39; Tennessee Nana; EternalVigilance; Reagan Man; Elsie; ...

15 posted on 01/22/2010 6:49:34 PM PST by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: Diogenesis; All
The guy is like a vampire; he knows how to speak with convincing sweet nothings, and simply will not die. I've been saying for years that Romney is BAD NEWS for the GOP and hence for the future of America. He needs to have a stake put through his political heart.

Romney is a big government politician. Look at every single solution he proposes for perceived problems -- every "solution" entails more, bigger government and less freedom for individual Americans. That he happens to be a Republican is bad, bad news.

Those who support Romney are supporting going to the same destination that Obama wants to take us, but on road marked with a different sign. Those who support Romney over a Liberal Democrat are choosing the Hindenberg instead of the Titanic.

16 posted on 01/22/2010 6:57:50 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent.)
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To: Diogenesis

Romney’s closest aides flooded to Mr. Brown, bringing with them the savvy of his national operation.
_________________________________________________

Well that so called “savvy” didnt do Sarah and the old guy any good..

Romney couldnt even conjure up enough “savvy” for himself...


17 posted on 01/22/2010 7:02:17 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: restornu; Leisler; greyfoxx39; Tennessee Nana; EternalVigilance; Reagan Man; Elsie; ...
restornu, it is daffy to compare the Clown Romney
to real people like Sen. Brown and Gov. Palin.

Why? Because ONLY ROMNEY TANKED AN ENTIRE STATE'S ECONOMY.
Not Gov. Palin. Not Sen. Brown.

The brutal fact is, unrebutted by the Legion of RomneyBOTs
is that any trained monkey could have done better than
Mitt Romney, who got a "C" rating from CATO.
And that was BEFORE
Romney's Socialized medicine and Romney's coverup of the BIG-dig kicked in. .
Note that the record also shows that Romney also betrayed President Bush as Governor
(predicting what TeamROMNEY would do later in Election2008 to Gov. Palin, and every other GOP candidate).
Also, Romney was against the conservative tax cuts.

Here are the facts from CATO.


MITT ROMNEY - THE PROVEN BAD GOVERNOR

"As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.
* Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states.
* Between fall 2003 and autumn 2006, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly three times Massachusetts' anemic 1.9 percent pace.
* While 8 million Americans over age 16 found work between 2002 and 2006, the number of employed Massachusetts residents actually declined by 8,500 during those years.
"Massachusetts was the only state to have failed to post any gain in its pool of employed residents," professors Sum and McLaughlin concluded.
In an April 2003 meeting with the Massachusetts congressional delegation in Washington, Romney failed to endorse President Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal."

[Cato Institute annual Fiscal Policy Report Card - America's Governors, 2004.]

18 posted on 01/22/2010 7:05:11 PM PST by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: Diogenesis

There’s not enough Botox to put Humpty Dumpty Romney back together...


19 posted on 01/22/2010 7:09:52 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: restornu; All
You know, resty, you ought to actually read Diogenesis' post #18. It's a lot smarter than shoving your fingers in your ears and yelling "na na na na na na na na," which is what it looks like you and every other die-hard Romney supporter is doing. You simply refuse to look at what your guy TRULY IS.

Open your eyes. Or you will be an enabler to this nation's downfall.

20 posted on 01/22/2010 7:11:28 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent.)
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