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Thomas Sowell: Nicers Losers
Jewish World Review ^ | 111312 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/13/2012 2:14:59 AM PST by Fred

Mitt Romney now joins the long list of the kinds of presidential candidates favored by the Republican establishment— nice, moderate losers, people with no coherently articulated vision, despite how many ad hoc talking points they may have.

The list of Republican presidential candidates like this goes back at least as far as 1948, when Thomas E. Dewey ran against President Harry Truman. Dewey spoke in lofty generalities while Truman spoke in hard-hitting specifics. Since then, there have been many re-runs of this same scenario, featuring losing Republican presidential candidates John McCain, Bob Dole, Gerald Ford and, when he ran for reelection, George H.W. Bush.

Bush 41 first succeeded when he ran for election as if he were another Ronald Reagan ("Read my lips, no new taxes"), but then lost when he ran for reelection as himself— "kinder and gentler," disdainful of "the vision thing" and looking at his watch during a debate, when he should have been counter-attacking against the foolish things being said.

This year, Barack Obama had the hard-hitting specifics— such as ending "tax cuts for the rich" who should pay "their fair share," government "investing" in "the industries of the future" and the like. He had a coherent vision, however warped.

(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: gop; obama2012; rinos; romney; sowell; vote2012
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To: Alberta's Child

I think you may be on to something here.

Given the nature of politics as it’s played these days, it may well be that only an idiot would want to get involved.


21 posted on 11/13/2012 4:06:25 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: RightLady

Romney looked like a fine man, and seemed like he could win considering the terrible failure of the last four years, but he and the team he put together ran a flop of a campaign. They didn’t go after Obama and instead tried to be a nice guy to ‘prove’ he wasn’t what Obama said he is. Pure defensive strategy. Additionally, they played the ‘nice guy, but’ to try to urge former Obama voters to switch over.

Their strategy was based on the polls months ago that showed dissatisfaction with Obama. They did not account for an effective opposition that would change those views over the summer and fall. They played the game as if the opposition was static and not actively working to win former supporters back. They needed to obliterate Obama and tie the failures directly to Obama. They never did. The PACs missed the mark too. Weak messaging lost. It sucks, but is so easy to see outside the fog of the war.


22 posted on 11/13/2012 4:13:31 AM PST by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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To: ilgipper
This is where I'm going to cut Romney and the GOP campaign a lot of slack. One of the problems any challenger faced in 2012 is that they had to run a campaign where they couldn't possibly get very specific or carry a strong message on the key economic issues on voter's minds these days. This country is flat broke, and anyone who stands up and tells people the things they don't want to hear -- like the only way to "fix" this is through massive entitlement cuts and massive tax hikes -- is going to get no more than 15% of the popular vote.

The irony of Romney's "47%" comment was that he would have been far worse off if he had simply told the truth: the "47%" are going to disappear because more and more of them are going to be joining their "53%" counterparts as taxpayers.

23 posted on 11/13/2012 4:25:54 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("I am the master of my fate ... I am the captain of my soul.")
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To: Fred
Two words: Sarah Palin.

Love her or hate her, you have to admit that when she was out there she was hard hitting and NOT playing by the eGOP's rules. That is one reason she never garnered the support of those selfsame eGOPers and galvinized the base.

And I will admit that I am royally pissed off at her for fading into the background instead of taking the reins and charging ahead in attacking zero. I am beginning to wonder if she sold her soul to the devil and decided to play the eGOP's game waiting for her "turn".

24 posted on 11/13/2012 4:32:36 AM PST by misharu (US Congress: Children without adult supervision.)
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To: Soul of the South

this is all true


25 posted on 11/13/2012 4:43:05 AM PST by ConservativeDude
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To: savedbygrace

True, plus many of those states were leftist states anyway(Iowa and New Hampshire).


26 posted on 11/13/2012 4:46:05 AM PST by MachIV
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To: Fred

New tagline...


27 posted on 11/13/2012 4:54:02 AM PST by EternalVigilance (Like sand through an Etch-A-Sketch, this is how republics die.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Our side has to recognize immediately that the candidate from 2008 into the future must be nothing but a marketing product. The times have changed. We have put up excellent communicators that inspire voters and can deliver the message. It is not excellent administrators or proven executives. The voters don’t care. It is not war heroes. That last mattered in 1988. No one with military service has been elected since GHWB. He voters get 24/7 media now and the candidate has to be a media superstar. The work will get done in the congress while the White House is the strategy and media face. If we play the old way we will lose every time.


28 posted on 11/13/2012 5:06:55 AM PST by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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To: ilgipper
Our side has to recognize immediately that the candidate from 2008 into the future must be nothing but a marketing product.

"We're going to sell Jack like soap flakes." - Joseph Kennedy, Sr.

29 posted on 11/13/2012 5:14:31 AM PST by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
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None of the presentations by conservative candidates is going to matter for many years. The citizens have been poisoned into an illusion and there is no cure. It took generations and decades to spread it enough, now it's taken hold so that now it's a self-feeding blood frenzy.

I hope you Democrats are happy with the inevitable destruction you've wrought upon us all.

30 posted on 11/13/2012 5:21:15 AM PST by USCG SimTech (Honored to serve since '71)
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To: Fred

The problem is simple to state yet there is no solution in sight. The Rancid Media gives Lib presidential candidates an additional 6-12 percent edge. Until we solve this, we will continue to lose.


31 posted on 11/13/2012 5:48:17 AM PST by pabianice (washington, dc ..)
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Cloward-Piven prevails! and so it goes......


32 posted on 11/13/2012 6:03:44 AM PST by worriedinoregon
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To: Tau Food

so maybe nothing HAS changed.


33 posted on 11/13/2012 6:28:05 AM PST by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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To: ilgipper

I agree he ran a lousy campaign. I despise the elite GOP insiders. Romney thought he could win on economy alone. He was mistaken. People have short memories. But I was way better than what we have.


34 posted on 11/13/2012 6:43:13 AM PST by RightLady (Take out the trash Nov 6th--too late)
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To: pabianice

I agree. The media is a beast that we have to kill first before conservatism has a chance.

I think we should start investigating every bowel movement the liberal talking heads on tv have ever had and start posting it on citizens journalists sites and expose their perfidy and miserable lives for all the public to see, including their rehab children. Put pictures of their houses and addresses on the internet, as well as their partners and start examining their IRS returns to find out what they do with their $million contracts.


35 posted on 11/13/2012 6:45:01 AM PST by Ms. Blunt
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To: misharu

No she said not sell her soul. The Republican establishment, with luminaries. Like Sununu, Romney, Rove, Barbara Bush, Dan Perrino and many others unleashed a barrage of bilge and lies against her. She had no chance this year to defeat the arrogance of Sununu, Rove and Ann Coulter. The emptiness of those idiots had to be exposed. Now it has. They ran Perfect Moderate Number 12 and he lost to Lucifer. The stage is now set. The Tea Party will not accept this again from the soulless cowards of the Repubublican Ruling Class.


36 posted on 11/13/2012 6:46:35 AM PST by Kentfromohio
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To: misharu

Sarah Palin wouln’t have got 40% of the vote. She chose not to get in the game. Mr. Sowell conveniently forgets to point out that 95% of blacks voted for Obama 75% of Latinos and over 70% of Asians also. Maybe he should climb out of the think tank and go into the black community and give free economic lessons.


37 posted on 11/13/2012 6:46:45 AM PST by tartar1000
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To: Fred

bttt


38 posted on 11/13/2012 8:15:39 AM PST by Razz Barry (Round'em up, send'em home.)
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To: tartar1000; Kentfromohio

tartar, Kent, I should have been more clear. I didn’t mean int he context of her running, I was talking more after she said she wouldn’t run. She still could have been more visible. That was my only point.


39 posted on 11/13/2012 9:11:47 AM PST by misharu (US Congress: Children without adult supervision.)
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