Romney's stumbling path - Can he really manage to kick it away?

Chicago Tribune ^ | Steve Chapman

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Republican candidates for president have been busy for weeks now, laboring strenuously to give the 2012 nomination to Mitt Romney. And he keeps trying to give it back.

The former Massachusetts governor could walk to next year's GOP convention without touching the ground, treading exclusively on the bodies of rivals who have fallen on their faces.....

....True, he has been guilty of occasional deviations from orthodox Republican theology,...His heresies on gay rights, abortion and gun control required extensive displays of penance, which he performed the last time out.

Besides, the GOP actually tends to nominate candidates closer to the party's center than its right edge. George W. Bush, remember, ran as a "compassionate conservative," to distinguish himself from the other kind.

Romney has also come up with an unpersuasive but not intolerable excuse for his health care reform plan, which is that it's suitable for Massachusetts and Massachusetts alone. This story is not enough to please Republicans, but it should serve to appease them.

Romney does not aspire to be the fellow at the party who enchants the girls with his dance moves and charm. He's more like the guy they settle on once all the other guys have passed out drunk, gotten distracted by a ballgame or come on way too strong. He's not thrilling, but he's not a disaster.

It would help, though, if he could stop committing inexplicable mistakes. Weeks ago, he praised an Ohio ballot initiative to curb the collective bargaining rights of government employees. Then..

All Romney achieved was to remind everyone of his uncanny resemblance to a windsock. In The New York Review of Books, Christopher Benfey writes that when he asks Bay Staters about him, "I get a recurring response: Nixonian." They see him as slippery, smarmy and void of principles.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...."I get a recurring response: Nixonian." They see him as slippery, smarmy and void of principles....

That's -- I'm running for office, for Pete's sake, I can't have illegals. [video clip] -- Mitt Romney, GOP presidential debate - October 18, 2011 - Las Vegas, NV

Rudy Giuliani asked Mitt Romney the same question in the 2008 CNN debate that Rick Perry asked him during the CNN 2011 debate -- Mitt lost it both times.

Nov 28, 2008 CNN-YouTube Debate: Sound familiar? [LOOK who interrupts whom!!]

Funny Accent Mitt Romney, discussing reports illegal immigrants did landscaping at his home: It would "not be American" to check workers' papers simply because they have a "funny accent." [acknowledges need for giving health care and education to illegals]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

PDF: Romney's disclosure form [inc. long list of his stock holdings including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] Romney pummels, profits from Fannie, Freddie

And for the Gardasil "innocent little girls" Crowd," Romney holds Stock in Merck & Co.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Obama/RomneyCare Romney's Remedy 201,406

Carbon Copies Romney-Obama: "That plant kills people!"

[Da Coyote]

Were I Perry, I’d create an almost like poster with pictures of RINOmney on both sides - with appropriate RIMOmney flip-flops described.

Then, revise the top part to read:

“Two Candidates”
“Neither One will Protect What’s Important To You”

The, at the bottom, the following appropriate phrase:

“RINOmney.”
“Whatever”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

That’s very clever.

[bigbob]

The reason Romney is stumbling is because he keeps tripping over his own tongue...

[wmfights]

,...His heresies on gay rights, abortion and gun control required extensive displays of penance, which he performed the last time out.

He only backtracked after he was out of office and was getting ready to run for national office. How can anyone trust a guy like that.

If Romney ends up the nominee obama will win.

[goldstategop]

Bay Staters are right about him. No one wanted to give him a second term and he wisely declined to run.

Apart from ambition, what qualifies Slick Willard to be President?

People are still trying to figure him out.

[shield]

Perry Ping....

IF you'd rather NOT be pinged FReepmail me.

IF you'd like to be added FReepmail me. Thanks.

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[Chasaway]

Holy cow, Shield!

That’s a great graphic...

C

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Romney’s Troubling Appointments (Mitt's environmental policy team now works for Obama) …………….“"EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has taken most of the fire from Republicans as her agency rolls out a slew of controversial new climate and clean air rules. But McCarthy, the EPA assistant administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation, has taken on much of the heavy lifting of writing, structuring, and implementing the rules.

“Lisa’s the coach and Gina’s the quarterback” in the work of rolling out new clean air regulations, said Daniel Weiss, an energy and climate policy expert at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the Obama administration. “She’s running the plays, improvising on the line.”

Another Romney environmental adviser in the effort to regulate “greenhouse gases” is now Obama’s Director of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren. Dr. Holdren has some exotic views: …………..

****************************************

9/6/2011 - Mitt’s Economic Policy speech: My plan to turn around the U.S. economy….“The Obama administration has severely restricted domestic energy production. I will ensure we utilize to the fullest extent our nation's nuclear know-how and immense reserves in oil, gas and coal. By rationalizing and streamlining regulation, we will harness these resources everywhere it can be done safely, taking into account local concerns. A huge number of jobs is at stake. So, too, is the price of energy, which strongly influences economic growth. We are an energy-rich country that, thanks to environmental extremism, has chosen to live like an energy-poor country. That has to end.”….

[Mitt put HUGE regulatory control on coal]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Romney’s Advisers Met With Obama to Help Craft ‘Obamacare’ “Three of Mitt Romney’s advisers went to the White House at least a dozen times in 2009 to consult on the former Massachusetts governor’s health care plan that President Obama used as a model for his initiative -- now a federal law that all the Republican presidential candidates want to repeal.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday he was "not in a position to comment on specific meetings." But in a remark that won't help Romney in his pursuit for the 2012 Republican nomination, Earnest repeated that Obama took cues from the Massachusetts legislation.

"You've certainly heard the president himself say that there were a number of very good ideas included in the health care plan that then-Gov. Romney put in place in Massachusetts that were incorporated into the Affordable Care Act and so it’s clear that these are some ideas that we were interested in incorporating and we did incorporate.

"But in terms of individual meetings and who participated and what the goal of them was, I don’t have that information,” he said.”……

[HiTech RedNeck]

Nixonian... that stings :-)

Was even Tricky Dick known for that much flip flopping or dodging? I think Romney is close to setting a record for that among all politicians, and can already claim the crown for the GOP.

If I wanted Romney to win I would tell him in certain terms: stop the flip flops immediately, even if it means you get stuck with some positions that prove troublesome. Americans do not want to elect a fog to the White House. They did that once before and it’s called Barack Obama.

[FourPeas]

His heresies on gay rights, abortion and gun control required extensive displays of penance, which he performed the last time out.

He's running for office, for Pete's sake!

[HiTech RedNeck]

If Mitt was only flipping from lefty to righty positions, this could be understood as “growing.” But Mitt claims righty positions then when he’s in the hot kitchen he (at best) dodges them. Like right-to-work in Ohio. He didn’t want to try to sell that to the AFL-CIO, though he had endorsed it a couple days before. Maybe he was just evading the question, maybe he really had flipped back his support. Who knows?

[DJ MacWoW]

Oh Oh!

Donate Here!

[NoRedTape]

Romney has zero chance at the Nom. He’s not right for the GOP. He’s a suede shoe poser. I would enjoy a long speech all about his admiration for that fake prophet Joe Smith, though.......that would be interesting. The end of his political hopes, but interesting.

[Caipirabob]

Mitt romney is a two faced, snake oil selling, GOP elistist yankee RINO socialist sleezebag, and I’m just getting warmed up...

[RedMDer]