Posted on 04/09/2012 2:18:46 PM PDT by xzins
It was just one line slipped into the middle of a paragraph of Mitt Romneys speech on April 3 celebrating his primary victories in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia: And the most vulnerable have been hurt the most over 30 percent of single moms are struggling in poverty.
Seemingly unremarkable, these 19 words represent one of the many steps Romney will be taking as he treks back to the center in the aftermath of a primary campaign dominated by the hard right. It was only two months ago, after all, that Romney told CNN: Im not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.
Without drawing attention to his rhetorical shift, Romney, in a speech on March 30 at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc., abandoned his attack on President Obamas entitlement society, faulting Obamas government-centered society instead.
There is a powerful rationale behind this shift.
In the primaries, Romneys target audience was well to the right of the mainstream and deeply hostile to the notion of entitlement programs. In the minds of many conservatives, such programs are direct transfer payments from hard-working better-off citizens to the undeserving poor. Denouncing Obamas entitlement society played well to angry Republican primary voters.
In the general election, however, voters are less inclined to adopt hostile views of redistributive government programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com ...
He is right, conservatives will not vote for Obama. Problem is, many of us aren’t voting for him either.
Folks in Virginia lost interest in the campaign when shenanigans at the highest levels left us with no one but a madman and an idiot to vote for.
He’ll find out conservatives will not vote for Romney and it will become clearer as it become harder to defend him and hes stuff to PISS OFF The Tea Party.
He’ll find out conservatives will not vote for Romney and it will become clearer as it becomes harder to defend him and as he does stuff to PISS OFF The Tea Party.
And that's proof he's tacking to the center? I mean, I'm sure he will, but that's a pretty uncontroversial statement. Over 30% of single moms are struggling in poverty.
It's what he would propose to do about it that might or might not indicate a shift to the left. The Romney-hatred is so great here that it will be interesting to see if FR turns into an anti-Republican hotbed when [probably] he wins the nomination.
There are republicans and there are conservatives. The two are becoming closer and closer to being mutually exclusive. I am a conservative, but have not been a republican in almost 4 years. TARP was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Iraq was tough to defend, but I tried, but once TARP was shoved up our rears, I could no longer defend Bush or the GOP. BTW, Romney supported TARP... as did Obama. Supporting Romney does nothing for our cause. I’d rather support a conservative 3rd party candidate and lose.
“All this defeatist crap will get us nowhere.”
The real “defeatist crap” is lapping up whatever country club liberal the establishment tosses us year after year. We buy in to the Republican talking points, close our eyes, hold our noses, and pull the lever like good little lemmings. It defeats conservatism.
The real “defeatist crap” is listening to the GOP talking heads proclaim that we need to change the Republican party from within...and believing it. How many times have we heard this? How well has it paid off? How well will it EVER pay off when the Rockefeller wing holds all the power? It defeats us from doing what we should have done a long time ago and telling them to get bent.
It’s time for a third party. We obviously aren’t going to change the Republican party from within, and the establishment hacks are getting worse and worse. Romney is worse than McCain. The PA GOP is trying to push Steve Welch, who donated to Pat Toomey’s Democrat opponent and voted for Barack Obama.
turns into???
Look, we all knew when Romney backed out for McLame, he was promised the nomination. Who didn’t know this would happen a year ago? Really, who didn’t know? We would have had to have one charasmatic guy who could gain the support of everyone. That person did not happen.
All this other stuff, like primaries, are for the people down ticket.
Nothing ever changes, it is always the same. The GOP picks their person and that is who we will get. Thinking otherwise is amusement.
LOL. Sadly, though, Karl, it’s true.
I will not stay home. I’ll not vote for Romney and I’ll not vote for Obama. I expect another choice to be available to us conservatives.
Romney will lose and he’ll lose big. Simple as that.
Sadly, I think you are 100% correct. The only time the GOP didn't get their man was in 1980 when Reagan was able to surprise everybody and beat out Bush. But that only delayed it for eight years. Ever since, the GOP has been extra careful to ensure only their hand-picked moderate prevails in the nomination process.
“Romney is not as bad as Obama...”
Traitors are worse than garden variety enemies
New York Times mischief? It was Romney’s own senior advisor who mentioned the Etch-a-Sketch. Those who are straining to portray Romney as a conservative refuse to accept the reality of Romney’s record and his current campaign. Those Romney supporters who are not already in his pocket are engaged in the most blinkered form of wishful thinking.
You're grasping at straws against Romney and using the NYT to do it.
I don’t get how this is Romney “lurching to the left” to talk about single moms in poverty. It is smart politics - divide the Obama coalition.
“We need to concentrate now on supporting RINOmney....”
Ha!!!!
Zelig lives. Woody Allen celebrates.
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