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.

[LexBaird]

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

After, in my lifetime, giving us Carter, LBJ, both Clintons, and 50% of the stuff GWB has done, the South has a lot of 'splainin to do before I grant them any sort of cause to brag.

[Reagan Man]

Watch this video and see the real Myth Romney.

You Can't Trust Mitt Part 1:Abortion

[WOSG]

“I admit that being from the South it wasn’t the fact that Romney was a Mormon but the fact that he was from Mass. that gave me pause.”

Just because it wasn’t only anti-Mormon prejudice doesnt mean it wasnt a ‘judge a book by its cover’ prejudice. There was anti-Money prejudice. anti-Massachusetts prejudice.

Which is a pity, because I can cite chapter and verse on the why and how Mike Huckabee was a more liberal governor than Mitt Romney. Now, if you WANT a prolife more liberal southerner over a fiscal conservative yankee ready to cut taxes and fix the economy - your choice. But the fact is that too many voted for a LESS conservative candidate simply because they bought the lie/myth that Romney=kerry, thinking they were doing a good thing for conservatism. And it is a complete nonsense.

Romney still did much better in TN and GA - he got 30% in GA - than Huckabee did outside the south. Romney’s support was widespread.
Romney won more conservative votes than any other candidate.
He got about 30% of evangelicals. But Romney had a headwind to fight based on just-a-glance prejudice that he couldnt get strong and broad support. That plus McCain’s insistutional support, media-friendly support, and large support with moderates put him in the #1 spot.

WHAT the LIBS are saying:
“Moderate conservatives have stood up and taken back thier party. While I still oppose most of thier view points I applaud them for kicking the far right to the curb......

Posted by LiberalVet “

[Deut28]

Beside the point?

So bigotry is tolerable in one situation but abhorrent in another?

[WOSG]

What is really hilarious is how Mark Steyn is talking completely above your head and yet you are oblivious to it.

We have have conservative voters turning down a ‘conservative media’ candidate for superficial reasons. Mark asks in essense:

“How on earth do we in the conservative media educate these fools? Especially after a Bush era of an ideals vacuum where “conservative education” seems an oxymoron?”

His joke is 100% at your expense.

[LexBaird]

Was there anti-Christian bigotry in the Utah primary?

The way you phrased this not only proves the point that Steyn was right, but that you don't even comprehend why he was right.

[Texas Federalist]

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

Is the "Handy Candidate Comparison Chart" written by Hugh Hewitt the only non-propagandizing piece of literature I will need to figure out the "facts"? I'm so confused by this whole politics thing.

[Texas Federalist]

I voted for Kinky too. Funny what you’ll resort to when you aren’t given a choice. How much do you want to bet Perry is on McCain’s short list for VP because he is actually perceived as a conservative in this upside down world.

[WOSG]

Egads, Romney is the most normal, decent, honorable, smart, well-spoken, ethical, genial, even-tempered, guy in the race. This has been shown in his private life as well a public career.
He’s the guy you’d want as a business partner, a next-door neighbor, and a man running any major institution, public or private ...

The negative reaction to such a decent person may indicate more about you than about him.

[Deut28]

Did you read my post about the comment being sarcastic/rhetorical?

I’m guessing no.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.

You do understand that Okies, Arkies and Southerners in general made up one of the biggest waves of immigrants to California and essentially built the foundations for the state to grow wealthy on, don’t you?

When someone claims to know how most people of any group think, I automatically discount what they say from then on. In your case, it’s even worse, as you managed to insult Southerners AND Californians in the same post.

Michael Frazier

[WOSG]

“The last Texas governor’s race didn’t have a conservative running either. “

Well, the only prolifer was Perry so for me was an easy decision... but I get your point. The evil of 4 lessers in that race.

Which we face in most races.

we need to quit with the knee-jerk “X is a lib” just because they are not 100% ers - since when is conservatism about failing to distinguish the better from the worse? Since when is conservatism about perfectionism?
Since when is conservatism about rejecting converts and new ideas?

Back to basics for the conservative cause - we need to rethink where we are and who we are.

better a convert than a traitor - Another Conservative for Mitt!

[WOSG]

It will be KBH for McCain’s VP.

You heard it here first.
Just watch.

[A_perfect_lady]

No, she’s describing on an emotional level, the body language that makes us aware when someone is a fake.

Uh huh. I've seen too many people smugly certain that they can "sense" things about people via their almost-psychic level intuition. They are never wrong. Just ask them.

[misterrob]

Your description of the guy just drips with class envy though and that is revealing in itself. For every accusation that northerners are elitist snobs there’s a valid counter that some of the simple folks down South are just that, simple.

At this point in the race there is no great candidate and that sucks. However, I have to consider which of the remaining will do the best for me and what I consider to be important. Who will do the best on SCOTUS, the economy, taxes and limiting government expansion? Anyone who thinks that Romney will do worse than Hillary/Obama/McCain on those issues is an idiot. I’d take Hunter or Fred in a heartbeat but they quit the race.

[LexBaird]

Oh, I read it, but that’s not the point of my comment. My point was that you were apparently oblivious to your anti-Mormon assumption that they are not Christian in your attempt at accusing them of being anti-Christian. You see, as far as the Mormon population of Utah is concerned, all the Republican candidates were Christian, so Christians received 100% of the vote in Utah.

Maybe if you had laid a charge of “anti-Evangelical”, you might have made a point. Instead, you just gave an example of how deeply ingrained your assumptions about Mormons are. But, considering their past willingness to elect Southern Christians like GWB in greater proportions than any other state in the union, you would look a bit silly doing that as well.

[misterrob]

But see there are a number of people who consider themselves conservative who eschew matters of finance and also (at times) limited government. I don’t care about fags. Live and let live as far as I am concerned. I’m worried about how I feed my family and provide a life for them. POTUS can support abortion or not but that’s really a legislative issue, isn’t it? Plus, anyone who thinks that conservatives are the “true majority” in this country are smoking crack and especially at the state level.

Romney is the best solution of what’s left. Not my first or second choice but someone I could live with.

[misterrob]

I still see mullets down here.....

[Deut28]

Can you name a major Christian denomination that acknowledges Mormons as Christians, except Mormons?

[bill1952]

>Take away the Bush tax cut and McCain-Feigold references and add socialized health care and you just described Mitt Romney.

Uhhhh.....you just described Hillary!

The man IS a democrat. - In the mold of a Lieberman on defense.
Okay, lets give that thought a roll here and see what turns up:

1)Endorses participation in the ICC. - so does hillary.
2)Voted against the Bush tax cuts. - so did hillary.
3)Wants Gitmo closed. - so does hillary.
4)Demands an end to waterboarding. - so does hillary.
5)Wants terrorists to have access to trial in America. - so does hillary.
6)Wants America to be bound to a “Global Warming” agenda. - so does hillary.
7)Wants amnesty, and authored and voted for McCain/Kennedy - so did hillary.
8)Does not exclude known criminals and felons from amnesty. - neither does hillary.
9)Does not believe that immigrants of any type should learn English. - Neither does hillary.
10) has zero record on appointing judges. Neither does hillary but they both did great damage to the process recently, john with the gang of .. how many? and hillary with her voting record.
11) John has a history of scandal and an ill controlled temper - so does hillary.
12) John opposes drilling in ANWAR - so does hillary.

Take out one or two fiscal issues and the man is closer to most dems than most dems are to each other!