Michael Tomasky on the (Possible) Coming Obama Landslide

The Daily Beast ^ | Aug 4, 2012 | Michael Tomasky

[Innovative]

Liberals don't want to jinx it. It terrifies the right. And the press would prefer a nail-biter. But the fact is that finding Romney's path to victory is getting harder every day.

There's a secret lurking behind everything you're reading about the upcoming election, a secret that all political insiders know—or should—but few are talking about, most likely because it takes the drama out of the whole business. The secret is the electoral college, and the fact is that the more you look at it, the more you come to conclude that Mitt Romney has to draw an inside straight like you've never ever seen in a movie to win this thing. This is especially true now that it seems as if Pennsylvania isn't really up for grabs. Romney's paths to 270 are few.

[SandwicheGuy]

Throw away your principles if you like, but don’t expect everyone else to do the same and support your pathetic candidate.

I concur with you. I am not going to vote for the lesser of two evils if it means compromising my principles.

It seems like FR is pretty much split between those who agree with this sentiment and those who think this election is like a football game, with odds and betting and all; it is not. It is fighting for our way of life, and if the soap box on FR echoes the ballot box in November, then the cartridge box is next. It is inevitable as tomorrow.

There is only one way out of this, in my opinion, and that is a general revulsion for the way this election is going and attendant action to dump the GOP candidate and nominate someone else, almost anyone else, who is a true conservative. Mormanism, queers in the Box Scouts, and national health care, any one is a deal-breaker and together they make me gag.

[philman_36]

...electing conservatives to Congress and the Senate isn’t the answer...
Sounds like an answer to me! What's wrong with that?

[DoughtyOne]

I honestly do share those concerns. Here’s the main problem for me. This nation is undeniably getting worse continually. The only variation is the speed.

If we wait another four or eight years to tell the GOPe no more, our nation will be done no matter who we vote for now.

Romney will install government health care. He will tweak Obamacare and call it fixed. And the Republican Congress will praise him and vote for it. They’ll claim it was much better than Obamacare, and they had to do it because the Democrats would have installed a worse system if they didn’t. And Conservatives will sucker for it. We have every time up until now haven’t we.

Then our nation is swamped. It’s over.
A Republican Congress may be able to stop a natural enemy. I just don’t see them blocking their own party president.

It’s very messy no matter which way we go this year. We might as well bite the bullet, tell the GOPe is no longer represents us, if it’s going to support Leftists.

What happens if we have some major event before 2016? Then folks will be saying, “No, we can’t stand up to the GOPe now, it’s a national emergency.”

You see, they game us like this perpetually.

Look, I like all you guys, but we’ve been living this scenario for 24 years since Reagan. It’s not working.

[Ann Archy]

I call myself an ULTRA conservative and while Romney isn't my IDEAL, he's ALL WE HAVE BETWEEN US and TOTAL DESTRUCTION!!!!!!

PLEASE think about 4 more DESTRUCTIVE years of Obama and if you think that Romney would be just as bad, you are being foolish.

[Ann Archy]

I call myself an ULTRA conservative and while Romney isn't my IDEAL, he's ALL WE HAVE BETWEEN US and TOTAL DESTRUCTION!!!!!!

PLEASE think about 4 more DESTRUCTIVE years of Obama and if you think that Romney would be just as bad, you are being foolish.

[Captain Beyond]

I hear you D1. We have been playing this same old song and dance too long. With B.O. we are on a bullet train at 1000mph to socialism with Rommney he will slow it down to a mere 500mph to socialist America.

Really what needs to happen here is that every Conservative in the United States of America needs to show up at the convention and unite around one candidate that represents our values and force a change. If we stay silent now it will be our own fault. Otherwise it is 4 more years of B.O. The Tyrant or 4 more years of soft socialism with SC judges that are appointed for life who will give us more unconstitutional BS.

[jazzlite]

...”Romney sucks. Too bad the RNC can’t find it in themselves to support an actual Conservative”...

I am going to be real negative here about America's future. This election is not about whether Romney is conservative enough. This election is about a nation which has descended, drip by drip, into hedonism and corruption. Granted, politics have always been corrupt to an extent because the guys/gals elected wanted to steal from the taxpayer coffers, to become rich Gods over everyone else. The problem now is that 35% of us are on the government dole and too many like it that way..We have brainwashed our children for two or three generations by force feeding them socialist/communistic values in our public schools and the belief in God as our creator who recommends the 10 commandments or an equivalent as a blueprint for life, followed by a settling up in eternity after this life is over, has been thrown out as myth. Adults and children today, for the most part, do not understand the difference between a free society and a slave society. Free societies do not have big governments..Slave societies do. However, slave societies come about because governments promise free stuff to get people hooked, then they abolish those to whom free stuff was given just as soon as they have enough control to do so. Considering that envy has existed since man took his first step on this earth, I consider class warfare one of the dirtiest and most corrupt ideas floating out there in the very air we breathe now. It is an excuse for destruction, chaos, robbery and murder. There are many other reasons why we have lost our country, including uncontrolled immigration, although I am thinking these days that perhaps other people from other nations who have a recent memory of fascism might do better at the helm in America. That could happen because our besotted drugged-up, pleasure seeking, Hollywood loving, God hating, lust-for-children, abortionist, dumbed down, narcissistic, violent prone, haters of the family, propagandized media, society will fall and perhaps God will allow it just as happened throughout Biblical history. Progressives will make fun of that last statement and label people like myself old foggies..However, those who do not have scales over their eyes see these things coming if that eternal hand which created all of us does not step in to stop it. Without a miracle, carnage is on the way. I really don't know why Mitt Romney or anyone would want to tackle the evil we have come to. I am just glad some are willing to do so. We will see what happens in November.

[Deagle]

I don’t disagree with you at all! I am worried about the next four years though if Obama is still in office. I guess it matters little if the long view is taken. Nicely said though and I agree with everything you’ve said. I just hope we have a chance to change things before it’s too late. Maybe it is time to take a stand!

Again, good night and have a good one...

[okie01]

This punting has got to stop. We are screwing the nation. Our party is. The Republican party is.

I agree wholeheartedly. But I ask for a sense of proportion.

One party is punting. The other is doing the screwing.

One is cause for disappointment. The other is cause for white-hot hatred.

I may be wrong, but seems to me you're upset with one party -- and it earns all your disdain. While the other gets a pass...

[DoughtyOne]

For all the ranting and raving about Romney being the nominee we must acknowlege that a majority of primary voters or caucus goers, who are more likely to be more politically active, voted for Romney. A keystone of democracy is that the majority prevails - we don't have to agree with the majority but we have to accede to the "wisdom of the people".

I'm running into an awful lot of folks here tonight who evidently did not know that Democrats were joining Republicans in open primaries to nominate our candidates.  Were you unaware of this?

On another related topic, were you also unaware that the GOPe had it's talking heads out bashing everyone but Romney the first four months of this year?  They joined the DNCp in an effort to destroy the momentum of good people.

In light of these two problems do you still maintain that the public has just changed, and that it's no longer possible to nominate solid Conservatives?

It's my contention that we're being gamed.  Fix these two problems, and lets see how things work.  Until then we've got work to do.  Job one is telling the GOPe that it is barely hanging on, and if it doesn't help us, we'll find someone who will.

In economics there is the concept of sunk costs and most economists agree that those costs cannot be recovered but that the wisest course of action is to maximize the returns from those costs. Do we insure a better return by following a course of action that insures Obama is re-elected or is thrown out of office. I have never be a Romney supporter, but the stakes are much too high to allow Obama to completely destroy our country.

Okay, let me run this by you.

Were we better off at the end of the Bush administration that we were at the start of it?  Are we better off today, than we were in 1989?  Are we anywhere close to being almost as well off as a party, as Conservatives, or as a nation?  All I am saying is that what we have been doing IS NOT working.  And now I am told we must continue to do what we have been doing.

That just doesn't compute for me anymore.  I am not going to enable the GOPe to do this any longer.

[Deagle]

No, he is upset with the system, corrupt as it is! Sorry for jumping in here, but I also think that the political system is so corrupt that it matters not which party is elected or in power. Damn, I need to get to bed soon...heh.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks again. I really do appreciate it. I don’t expect everyone to get it, but it’s nice when some do.

[M1911A1]

I’m afraid that the conservatives we send to Washington as Reps and Senators soon find themselves going along to get along. If we sent a whole batch of conservative freshmen, in numbers large enough to give the Roves of the party the boot, it might be different, but the small numbers elected just get co-opted, or at least many of them do.

Changing the game is going to take something earth shattering. Maybe it’s another four years of Obama leading to ashes and ruin, but that seems like a terrible price to pay.

[EnquiringMind]

I don’t see how anyone whom calls himself a Conservative could ever vote for Romney.

I don't see how anyone WHO calls himself a Conservative could ever allow Obama to win again.

[DoughtyOne]

If we had five million people standing outside of the convention with candles, and each one stuck to the line that they will never vote for Mitt Romney, but they would vote for a Conservative, it would make an extremely powerful statement.

Short of that, I don’t see anything happening to rectify this situation. Frankly, I’d love to see a Tea Party hijacking of the Convention.

I hold no hope for either of these things to materialize.

I would join an effort, but I’m not driving to Tampa from Los Angeles, only to be ignored.

[ScottinVA]

Exactly. If the inevitability of an 0bama second term is so overwhelming, then:

1. Why the unusually desperate rhetoric (for this point in the campaign) from 0bama`s people?

2. Why the wild-eyed, bizarre insinuations about Romney`s taxes from Harry Reid?

3. Why are the “media” relying on the laughably unbalanced and unrepresentative Dem sampling to achieve “advantages” of +6 for 0bama?

4. Why the obsessive and bizarre pleas for money by 0bama`s campaign? Does that sound like a campaign that has confidence in its success?

5. Why is 0bama`s campaign taking an unusual gamble vs, the military and seeking to squelch our troops` voting rights in Ohio?

Tomasky is a propagandist whose objective is to dispirit anti-0bama voters, presenting a “case”...BASED ON TAINTED “POLLS” ... that we`re wasting our time harboring any hopes of defeating that anti-American POS.

As for Romney, remember.. his actions as a governor reflected what the people in MA wanted. I`m not a big fan of his either, but he`s leagues better and for more American than the Kenyan POS will ever be. Any hoped-for conservative renaissance spawned by a second term of Obama will be mooted if America as we know it has breathed its last.

Finally, the GOP hasn`t even had a chance to showcase its nominee at the convention yet, nor has Romney made his VP pick. How about we see how that all shakes out before we meekly accept the false narrative by hard-core leftists like Tomasky that the election is over before it begins?

[DoughtyOne]

Deagle, I appreciate your attitude. I don’t demand you buy into what I’m saying here. I try to be logical, but folks aren’t going to buy into this and I acknowledge that.

My past efforts have centered around getting this message out every four years before the Convention. After the Convention, you guys can do what you want. I’m not here to drive votes away from your choice.

The concept has to be driven home. Some day, if we still have a nation left, we will have to bite the bullet.

One day you and others may look back on this and curse the day you didn’t take what I am saying more seriously.

All I can do is lay it out.

Take care.

[Gaffer]

Does anyone know what the current membership total of FR is?

[Deagle]

Not at all D-One... I’ve been harboring your statements (and well put) for many years but just as others can’t seem to find the right time to pull the trigger - so to speak. I have been so disgusted with the Republicans and actually the whole political corruption scheme going on in Washington that all confidence has been lost in the political process. Seems like business in cahoots with government is not any better either.

It’s time to just give in and let things happen and vote for Conservative folks and hope I guess. If that does not work, then there is always the Tea Party - maybe throwing overboard some Tea for taxes thing...heh.

Enjoyed your comments tonight and there is nothing wrong with finally convincing others that changes are needed. I’ve just been putting off this decision for too long!

[DoughtyOne]

This punting has got to stop. We are screwing the nation. Our party is. The Republican party is.

I agree wholeheartedly. But I ask for a sense of proportion.  One party is punting. The other is doing the screwing.  One is cause for disappointment. The other is cause for white-hot hatred.

I may be wrong, but seems to me you're upset with one party -- and it earns all your disdain. While the other gets a pass...

You and I are walking down the street.  I just purchased a burger and I'm eating it as we walk and talk.  At one point I mention everything that is wrong with it, and you point to a pile of cow stuff on the road, and ask why I only address the sandwich and not the cow stuff.

Bud, if I'm not happy with a terrible sandwich, what makes you think I'd eat cow stuff of the road?  Would I need to tell you what was wrong with the cow stuff?  No, it would be a given that I wasn't going to eat the cow stuff, and what was wrong with it would go unsaid.

The Democrat pary and specifically Barack Obama is nothing but cow stuff, and what's wrong with it and him doesn't need to be said.

We have one party that is our conduit to success.  It isn't the Democrat party.  And so we must work to perfect the party that can contribute our cause, if we just bitch slap it into submission.  Onward to that effort...