The Oysters Come Home to Roast (Romney=Kerry)

National Review Online ^ | 2/6/2008 | Mark Steyn

[JohnnyZ]

I woke up this morning to a ton of e-mail from aggrieved southerners, almost outnumbering the ton of spam for generic Viagra, which I've forwarded to the RNC. Anyway, southern voters resented my (and John O'Sullivan's) assertion that they hadn't voted for Mitt because he was a Mormon. Au contraire, they said they hadn't voted for Mitt because he's a north-eastern liberal. Whatever. I rather enjoyed this Georgia gal's take:

I was one of your "No Mormon, no way, no how" Southerners until someone at a dinner party asked me if I'd support Orrin Hatch for President. And you know what? I would. It's then I realized I just didn't like Romney because he's about as phony as baloney. And I am unnaturally annoyed at how he receives applause from his audiences: toothless smile, looking left tilting chin up, looking right tilting chin up; back and forth.

Oh and by dinner party I mean oyster roast.

Oh, dear. Mitt is beginning to feel like the conservative media's version of John Kerry, the guy the MSM thought they could drag across the finish line. Except we have a tougher problem, to which Lisa and Stanley referred. The default mode of the culture is liberal; the key levers of society are liberal. Bush-era strategists have largely ignored that reality in favor of get-out-the-vote and other organizational techniques. The defects of that approach seem increasingly apparent.

[Digital Sniper]

How about looking at some facts instead of just swallowing the McCain propaganda for a change?

[Eagle of Liberty]

The South was never going to vote for a liberal Yankee like that,

So they put a Southwestern liberal who's even worse in instead. How does that make things better?

No doubt.

Johnnyz: How does one not vote for a "liberal Yankee" but then is fine with voting for a "liberal Arkansan" or a "liberal Southwesterner"? I love "The South" and I know that it is almost impossible to win without "The South" but why still so much disdain for "Yankees"? I don't hear many people running around screaming, "those damn confederates". Why not just view a liberal as a liberal and a conservative as a conservative? Would you vote for a NE conservative? Or do you assume one to be untrustworthy because one is a "Yankee"?

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Romney was the Republican John Kerry.

A good comparison, except Willard is a much better flipper... flopper... whatever.

One anti-conservative, pro-abortionist down, one to go. We are now on official Romney Death Watch.

[Son House]

Romney keeps the Math in. Democrats and other Republicans are getting by folks with out submitting a workable budget. The comparison to Kerry is idiotic, Romney has a budget plan that is

fiscally conservative == more freedom;

fiscal morons will continue to enslave Americans to Congressional spending.

[ridge]

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Here’s the agenda of mccain: endless wars, amnesty, greenhouse gas taxes, backstabbing of conservatives at every turn, constitution-hating judges who’ll uphold his attacks on the Bill of Rights. etc etc. But at least he’s not Romney.

[ChurtleDawg]

the fact is that it is pretty hard to like Romney. The guy is obnoxious. I have a visceral reaction to his phoniness

[Deut28]

Yeah, the question was sarcastic/rhetorical. It is hilarious that the question is immediately asked when it comes to elections in the south “Will evangelicals support a Mormon?”, but never asked in the reverse. As if the religious bigotry is morally acceptable in one instance and intolerable in the other.

[weegee]

So if Mitt is a lib, is he less of a lib than Hillary, Obama or McCain?

Choose your next President wisely. We all get stuck.

The last Texas governor’s race didn’t have a conservative running either. We had 4 Democrats to choose between (Gov. Good Hair Perry, One Tough Grandma, Chris Bell one of the crybaby Dems who took his revenge on Tom DeLay launching an ethics charge, and Kinky Friedman). So two of those Democrats had also carried the banner of Republican, they were Democrats throughout the Reagan era and one ran in the race as an independent. I voted Kinky. Perry stabbed the GOP in the back as soon as he was re-elected (he renegged on the border and laughed about it).

[JohnnyZ]

Why not just view a liberal as a liberal and a conservative as a conservative?

Great! Let's look at the litmus test issues, the key points, especially in the South, that will indicate that a candidate is worth considering:

Abortion - Huckabee strongly pro-life, McCain long pro-life record, Romney pro-abortion record plus flip-flop

Gay rights - Huckabee strong pro-family record, McCain good pro-family record, Romney historically and currently supports some special "gay rights"

Guns - Huckabee strongly pro-2A, McCain pretty good on 2A, Romney supported banning assault weapons

Military/veteran - Huckabee meh, McCain POW/veteran who strongly supported the surge and has son in military, Romney avoided the draft via missionary work and no one in his family has served in the military going back 100 years

Not surprisingly, the results reflected where the candidates stood on those cornerstone issues, despite Rush et al trying to push Romney.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Mormons can’t be bigots.

Next you’ll tell me that the founders of Mormonism ordered the murder of a bunch of Methodists settlers passing through Utah to steal their gold and thus obtain the seed money for their religion.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Mormons can’t be bigots.

Next you’ll tell me that the founders of Mormonism ordered the murder of a bunch of Methodists settlers passing through Utah to steal their gold and thus obtain the seed money for their religion.

[weegee]

Which candidate is pushing for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion on demand? Without it, you’ll always have activist judges making law.

[Nonstatist]

The South was never going to vote for a liberal Yankee like that, and the accusations of anti-Mormon bigotry from the Romney folks make them sound just like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on race, preaching hate and playing the victim card.

Pot calling the kettle black? What an ungracious ahole you are .

[Rameumptom]

>>>I guess anyone with a full set of teeth, nice hair and no plaid shirt comes over as elite in the south.

Since when can southerners talk to anyone about hair. Don't ever get between a southern preacher's hair and his blow dryer.

[Theophilus]

The default mode of the culture is liberal; the key levers of society are liberal. Bush-era strategists have largely ignored that reality in favor of get-out-the-vote and other organizational techniques. The defects of that approach seem increasingly apparent.

The default mode of humanity has always been sinful. You can't change that with any kind of strategy. The Cross of Christ is the only hope of salvation for mankind, political or spiritual. You can't build a nation like Iraq if it's people are hopelessly mired in their sins. You can't sustain a nation like the United States if it's citizens are devoid of love and virtue.

We are the salt of the world, but we have lost our savor.

Matthew 5
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Mark 9
49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another

"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken… we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God… We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going."

- John Winthrop

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.

- Farewell Address, Ronald Reagan

[Rameumptom]

>>>90% of the republican voters (Mormons) in Utah supported Flip. Come to your own conclusion. Can you say, Group Think?

Well, seeing as how Clinton came in third in Utah 1992 we need more of their group think. McCain and Huck are giving us Hilary.

[ridge]

Stop spinning McCain as some conservative. It is absolute nonsense. In fact, he is the greatest flip-floper in the race. He went from conservative to progressive. This really is about an irrational dislike and person thing. You can not possiblly care about the issues and support McCain.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

I wish Thompson had gotten in the race sooner and stayed in the race longer.

[BlazingArizona]

Was there anti-Christian bigotry in the Utah primary?

Beside the point. It's a fact that there IS a certain anti-Mormon feeling in the South. We have a lot of Mormons in this state, so I have heard many stories of the mandatory missionary year every young Mormon spends in some different location. Those who go to our own South report more anti-LDS experiences than those who go to Europe or Latin America.