Posted on 01/23/2012 7:08:43 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
This loss is a bad one. Not only did he blow a sizable (and, as it turns out, illusory) lead, he finds himself right back where he started this campaign, stuck at around a quarter of the vote. If that’s “electable,” the GOP is in serious trouble.
The smart set will be quick to tell you that Romney still has plenty of money and organization. So did Tim Pawlenty in Iowa and Michele Bachmann beat him. Those things may be beloved of the Republican “strategists” — who are, of course, merely tacticians obsessed with Operation Market Garden but who can’t find Berlin on a map — but in a primary campaign that is primarily being waged via the televised debates, they count for much less than they used to.
What counts is passion. The 2010 midterms proved that, but the GOP bonzes seemed embarrassed by the Tea Party’s success. They pushed the “electable” and “inevitable” memes as hard as they could in the service of a milquetoast candidate, and the mainstream media, openly rooting for the other side, was only too happy to help them out. As I’ve been saying, Romney’s been the candidate the Democrats have wanted to face all along, in part because of his glass ceiling. Which is turning out to be a glass jaw.
So Romney has simply got to come up with a more cogent rationale for his candidacy than he has up to now if he has any hope of becoming president. He can’t run for CEO any more.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I can sum up the primary so far- Newt Gingrich is addressing the real concerns of Republican voters while Mitt Romney has been running mostly on platitudes.
Winning one election in a liberal state then not seeking a second term in the face of defeat is not an impressive electoral history. Gingrich has his problems, but what makes the establishment think that Romney’s so appealing?
(Romney’s electability may be NBP - nothing but propaganda!)
The whole thing is akin to searching for a Luther Vandross mix tape.
Why?
It's the hair.
He's John Edwards without the mistress.
Fighting Newt is not the answer.
Romney has to *convincingly* turn himself into a populist, establishment-fighting, tea-partier real fast — or he is finished.
Newt understood this and like a chameleon, told people what they wanted hear. How much of it he means it is another question. As a long time Newt watcher, I don’t trust Gingrich a single bit.
.
Of course Romney is the most electable! He’s just like Obama, who got elected. Duh!
I watch the business channels a lot and the folks there like Romney because of his business experience and results. Their rationale is that the major campaign issue is jobs and the economy and that’s where Romney’s expertise lies. That’s probably also the thinking of the establishment and the pundits.
That may hold water with an electorate that’s thinking in a level headed, rational way. But that’s not the case now. People are really ticked off, not only those on the right, but those on the left as well (OWS).
Gingrich is doing the best job at tapping into that anger. Actually, Paul is also doing a fair job as well.
The establishment and punditry seem clueless about the mood of the electorate. They’re grasping at straws to explain it. They must have been sleeping during the 2010 election cycle or they might have gotten a clue.
Rush got it exactly right today in his first hour monologue.
Especially since his polling numbers are as flat as before the 2008 election.
Had lunch with a old fried, a rabid Democrat, and she said that she’s not happy with Obama, she won’t vote for Romney, but she liked the way Gingrich is talking.
“I watch the business channels a lot and the folks there like Romney because of his business experience and results. Their rationale is that the major campaign issue is jobs and the economy and that’s where Romney’s expertise lies.”
The thing is that Romney has been an investment banker and a venture capitalist. Has he ever personally run a business that produces anything? Has he ever been involved in the day-by-day activities of a business? Has he ever personally had to make a payroll or personally hire someone? Has he ever personally put together monthly financial reports? That is what I’ve always considered business experience.
He doesn’t really have much to build himself up with at this point (besides money) so he has no choice but to tear Gingrich down and he does so by attacking everything Newt has ever done.
Well, there’s a huge bigboard next to the first Staples store ever in Brighton, MA on Soldiers’ Field Road. Mitt speaks proudly of founding Staples. Does that count?
The problem for Romney is that his economic plan calls for GDP growing at 4%+.
That’s not achievable in the majority of quarters. It just isn’t. Not in an economy as large as ours, not in an economy as dependent upon cheap debt for growth, and certainly not in an economy where the financial sector grew to provide over 22% of the profits in the SP500 index of companies in 2007.
To really get the economy creating jobs again in the US, we have to reverse this idiotic obsession with outsourcing manufacturing and pull it back in. Romney has no plan how to do that. No one else does, either, BTW.
Romney doesn’t appear ready (or willing) to take on the corruption on Wall Street and get rid of the bad actors. A simple campaign promise that would get a lot of votes in farm country right now would be “I’m going to get to the bottom of what Jon Corzine did, and if the facts prove he’s guilty, he’s going to be charged with criminal violations and prosecuted for his acts.”
That would resonate with a LOT of people. But Romney will never say that.
bigboard = billboard
He's a liberal, so he appeals to them.
They don't know what appeals to the little people, they don't want to know and they wouldn't care if they did know because we don't know what is good for us....but they do.
And they are going all out to give it to us like a softball sized suppository.
He may not even be a natural born citizen, as his father was Mexican. Just what we need!
From Wikipedia:
Staples was co-founded by Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, who were former rivals in the New England retail supermarket industry.[2][3][4]
“.................The idea for Staples was created in 1985, while founder Thomas G. Stemberg was working on a proposal for a different business. He needed a ribbon for his printer, but was unable to obtain one because his local dealer was closed for the Independence Day holiday. A frustration with the reliance on small stores for critical supplies combined with Stemberg’s background in the grocery business led to a vision for an office supply superstore.[5] The first store was opened just outside Boston in 1986. This first store is no longer in its original location. It has since moved next door.............................”
See anything about Mitt Romney? Of course not. At a time when Staples wanted investors Bain invested $2Mil. That is the extent of Romney’s involvemet. Venture capital money at expansion. Nothing more. Important,yes, inconcievable that others would not do the financing, Hardly. Had Staples started in LA they would NOT have had venture capital from Bain.
Really? Nothing But Pelosi
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.