Romney Can Still Overcome Obama's Dishonest, Divisive Campaign

U.s. News & World Report ^ | September 21, 2012 | MORTIMER B. ZUCKERMAN

[neverdem]

The problem for Mitt Romney right now is that he has put his entire candidacy at risk to the point where he may not even qualify for the dismissive equation of Barack Obama that Marco Rubio formulated for the Republican faithful: "Our problem is not that he's a bad person. Our problem is that he's a bad president." Is Romney also "not a bad person, just a bad candidate"? With his "47 percent" remarks at a Republican fundraiser in May, he has given his opponent evidence to initiate a new line of attack.

Voters can forgive a candidate who stumbles in the heat of an election, trapped by "gotcha" questions from journalists, being quoted out of context in cunning TV attack commercials, and in the Twitter age, failing to appreciate that nothing that is said is secret anymore. We all know the game, and Romney has demonstrated that he is not perfect at this game.

The same can be said of President Obama. As a candidate, he ran a brilliantly smooth and targeted campaign four years ago, but even he misspoke, as they say, in what he thought was a private meeting of San Francisco liberals. When the polls suggested he wasn't appealing to rural voters, his response was to blame them for not seeing how different he was from the likes of Bill Clinton and George Bush, who had let them down. "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," he said. "It's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their..."...

[Stayfree]

[boomop1]

As the media ignores without them it would be Romney 70 Obozo 30.

[pallis]

Don’t look now, but Romney is overcoming business as usual from the left, and he is just getting started. The debates are on the way, and while Obama will no doubt prove the most hackneyed whiner of maudlin verbosity, he will sink to an effeminate lump before the manliness of Romney’s superior intellect.

[Gaffer]

The first thing to do is to ignore ANYTHING the traditional leftist LameStreamMedia has to say. USNWR is leftist. Has been for three decades or more.

[God luvs America]

I REALLY hope you’re are right....i cannot bear another minute of obama but i got to tell you; i don’t know what Romney is waiting for....i’m watching the Iowa/Central Michigan game on the Big Ten network and 7 minutes into the 4th quarter i’ve already seen 3 BS ads from obama attacking Romney yet not a single Romney ad...remember; this is Big Ten (Mich/Ohio/Wisconsin) territory thats seeing most of these ads...

ditto for many of the college games on ESPN- lots of obama ads nothing from Romney...

[delcopatriot]

“... he will sink to an effeminate lump before the manliness of Romney’s superior intellect.”

Too funny! I agree, the debates will such an ass-kicking ~ (Both Prez & VP) will American voters then FINALLY wake up?

[sickoflibs]

RE :”The trouble with Romney—and for Romney—is that he has etched an unappealing sketch of himself. For independent voters, he made too many flip-flops in policy to appease the right. Indeed, he had an uncanny knack for offering an easy target for his opposition: “I like being able to fire people,” “I'm also unemployed,” “I'm not concerned about the very poor,” and “Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs.” He seems to be living in another world, referring to middle income as being in the range of “$200,000 to $250,000,” when the median income is more like $50,000. By the way, after four years of Obama’s economic stewardship, that figure represents a dramatic decline of 10 percent and, in fact, is a strong point to Romney's case against the administration.
Such careless remarks have made it easy for the Obama campaign to get away with a program that pits “the millionaires and billionaires” against the people.
........
Instead of making this part of his own case, Romney has exposed himself to the charge that he is out of touch, out of sympathy, and clueless about the lives of the mass of Americans.”

Romney is exactly the WRONG person to argue for accomplishment over dependence. He always has been. I NEVER saw how he could win this debate and he has been proving my point by shooting his own side with stupid comments.
Grover Norquist's claim that Rs can put up an empty suit who only needs to be able to veto or sign bills was not thought out.

[annieokie]

Think Romney can use the ole’ “My Number One Priority” shtick?

[annieokie]

Maybe not, but he can sure use it in the debates of how many times Jerko has used this over the past 4 years.

Mr. President, just what is your Number One Priority, uh! today?

[richardtavor]

US News and
world report? Are you kidding?

[ozzymandus]

Mort Zuckerman decided to be a Democrat because all his friends were. I wouldn’t believe a word he says.

[richardtavor]

One should give credit to whom he quotes....

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t dispute what you say. He has shot himself in the foot more than I would like. On the other hand, the stooge on the other side has shot himself in the head more times than Romney has shot himself in the foot.

The media slant on things is that Romney has destroyed his chances at being president. Never-mind that Obama has broken every cardinal (electoral) rule known to man by this point. He’s still the great foreign affairs sage, so good with people here at home. Why he’s leading us out of this terrible Bush/Republican recession.

I mean the comedic value of what the media foists off day after day, is priceless. It’s destroying itself.

November 6th, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are going to be elected to be the next team to inhabit the White House. And it’s not even going to be close. And when that happens, the pollsters, the pundits, the DNCp and all it’s many tentacles will be laid bare for all to see.

It’s over DNCp.

I believe we’re going to see a hew and cry for the death of the organizations that have been lying to us. It’s going to be ugly. It’s way past time for it. I’m going to make a point of looking up who advertises on them, and I’m going to make sure they don’t see a dime of my money ever again.

[DoughtyOne]

LOL So true...

[DoughtyOne]

BTW: That being said, this is going to be a rough next four years. I don’t think Romney is going to represent US. He’s going to represent the Rovian/Cardian/GOPe brand of Republicanism, something so far from our vision that we’ll have to look back to the November 7th news, to remind ourselves which team he was representing.

I don’t care which team is elected, I still expect to see us $25 trillion in debt by 2020.

One almost suspects he’s not saying everything he could, because he doesn’t want to be held responsible when none of it comes true.

If he starts the..., “Well, Obama handed off such a mess”, routine, I’m going to be yelling for a short rope and a high branch.

[Patton@Bastogne]

Obama has even scratched the surface for what’s planned for Myrh Romney ....from the MORMON Planet Kolob in the Constellation Cancer

[KansasGirl]

[He seems to be living in another world, referring to middle income as being in the range of “$200,000 to $250,000,” when the median income is more like $50,000.]

Zuckerman just can’t help himself from spreading lies I guess. Romney never said that. He said middle class is “less than 200,000 to 250,000.”

[Tanniker Smith]

I might actually buy a copy of the New York Daily News when they come out and endorse Romney. It might tick off some of their readers, but they’ll get some support.

[datura]

Same recycled BS from you.