Posted on 04/17/2012 6:38:10 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Mitt Romney was a moderate governor in Massachusetts with an unimpressive record of governance. He left office with an approval rating in the thirties and his signature achievement, Romneycare, was a Hurricane Katrina style disaster for the state. Since that’s the case, it’s fair to ask what a Republican who’s not conservative and can’t even carry his own state brings to the table for GOP primary voters. The answer is always the same: Mitt Romney is supposed to be “the most electable” candidate. This is a baffling argument because many people just seem to assume it’s true, despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary.
1) People just don’t like Mitt: The entire GOP primary process so far has consisted of Republican voters desperately trying to find an alternative to Mitt Romney. Doesn’t it say something that GOP primary voters have, at one time or another, preferred Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and now even Ron Paul (In Iowa) to Mitt Romney?
To some people, this is a plus. They think that if conservatives don’t like Mitt Romney, that means moderates will like him. This misunderstands how the process of attracting independent voters works in a presidential race. While it’s true the swayable moderates don’t want to support a candidate they view as an extremist, they also don’t just automatically gravitate towards the most “moderate” candidate. To the contrary, independent voters tend to be moved by the excitement of the candidate’s base (See John McCain vs. Barack Obama for an example of how this works). This is how a very conservative candidate like Ronald Reagan could win landslide victories. He avoided being labeled an extremist as Goldwater was; yet his supporters were incredibly enthusiastic and moderates responded to it.
Let’s be perfectly honest: Mitt Romney excites no one except for Mormons, political consultants, and Jennifer Rubin. To everybody else on the right, Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama would be a “lesser of two evils” election where we’d grudgingly back Mitt because we wouldn’t lose as badly with him in the White House as we would with Obama. That’s not the sort of thing that gets people fired up to make phone calls, canvass neighborhoods, or even put up “I heart Mitt” signs in their yards.
2) He’s a proven political loser: There’s a reason Mitt Romney has been able to say that he’s “not a career politician.” It’s because he’s not very good at politics. He lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994. Although he did win the governorship of Massachusetts in 2002, he did it without cracking 50% of the vote. Worse yet, he left office as the 48th most popular governor in America and would have lost if he had run again in 2006. Then, to top that off, he failed to capture the GOP nomination in 2008. This time around, despite having almost every advantage over what many people consider to be a weak field of candidates, Romney is still desperately struggling. Choosing Romney as the GOP nominee after running up that sort of track record would be like promoting a first baseman hitting .225 in AAA to the majors.
3) Running weak in the southern states: Barack Obama won North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida in 2008 and you can be sure that he will be targeting all three of those states again. This is a problem for Romney because he would be much less likely than either Gingrich or Perry to carry any of those states. Moderate northern Republicans have consistently performed poorly in the south and Romney won’t be any exception. That was certainly the case in 2008 when both McCain and Huckabee dominated Romney in primaries across the south. Mitt didn’t win a single primary in a southern state and although he finished second in Florida, he wasn’t even competitive in North Carolina or Virginia. Since losing any one of those states could be enough to hand the election to Obama in a close race, Mitt’s weakness there is no small matter.
4) His advantages disappear in a general election: It’s actually amazing that Mitt Romney isn’t lapping the whole field by 50 points because he has every advantage. Mitt has been running for President longer than the other contenders. He has more money and a better organization than the other candidates. The party establishment and inside the beltway media are firmly in his corner. That’s why the other nominees have been absolutely savaged while Romney, like John McCain before him, has been allowed to skate through the primaries without receiving serious scrutiny.
Yet, every one of those advantages disappears if he becomes the nominee. Suddenly Obama will be the more experienced candidate in the race for the presidency. He will also have more money and a better organization than Mitt. Moreover, in a general election, the establishment and beltway media will be aligned against Romney, not for him. Suddenly, Romney will go from getting a free pass to being public enemy #1 for the entire mainstream media.
If you took all those advantages away from Romney in the GOP primary, he’d be fighting with Jon Huntsman to stay out of last place. So, what happens when he’s the nominee and suddenly, all the pillars that have barely kept him propped up in SECOND place so far are suddenly removed? It may not be pretty.
5) Bain Capital: Mitt Romney became rich working for Bain Capital. This has been a plus for Romney in the Republican primaries where the grassroots tend to be dominated by people who love capitalism and the free market. However, in a year when Obama will be running a populist campaign and Occupy Wall Street is demonizing the “1%,” Mitt Romney will be a TAILOR MADE villain for them. Did you know that Bain Capital gutted companies and made a lot of money, in part, by laying off a lot of poor and middle class Americans? Do you know that Bain Capital got a federal bailout and Mitt Romney made lots of money off of it?
“The way the company was rescued was with a federal bailout of $10 million,” the ad says. “The rest of us had to absorb the loss … Romney? He and others made $4 million in this deal. … Mitt Romney: Maybe he’s just against government when it helps working men and women.”
The facts of the Bain & Co. turnaround are a little more complicated, but a Boston Globe report from 1994 confirms that Bain saw several million dollars in loans forgiven by the FDIC, which had taken over Bain’s failed creditor, the Bank of New England.
Did you know Ted Kennedy beat Romney in 1994 by hammering Mitt relentlessly on his time at Bain Capital? No wonder. The ads write themselves.
Imagine pictures of dilapidated, long since closed factories. They trot out scruffy looking workers talking about how bad life has been since Mitt Romney crushed their dreams and cost them their jobs. Then they show a clip of Mitt making his $10,000 bet and posing with money in his clothes. All Mitt needs is a monocle and a sniveling Waylon Smithers type character to follow him around shining his shoes to make him into the prototypical bad guy the Democrats are trying to create.
Now, the point of this isn’t to say that what Mitt did at Bain Capital was dishonorable. It certainly wasn’t. To the contrary, as a conservative, I find his work in the private sector to be just about the only thing he has going for him. But, people should realize that in a general election, Mitt’s time at Bain Capital will probably end up being somewhere between a small asset and a large liability, depending on which side does a better job of defining it.
6) The Mormon Factor: This is a sensitive topic; so I am going to handle it much, much more gently than Hollywood and the mainstream media will if Mitt gets the nomination. Mormons do believe in Jesus Christ, the Mormon Church does a lot of good work, the ones I’ve met seem to be good people, and two of my best friends are Mormons. That being said, Mormons are not considered to be a mainstream Christian religion in large swathes of the country. There will be Protestants who will have deep reservations about voting a Mormon into the White House because they’ll be afraid it will help promote what they believe to be a false religion. There have also been a number of polls that show that significant numbers of Americans won’t vote for a Mormon as President.
Just look at a couple of the more recent polls and consider how much of an impact this issue could have in a close election.
The poll found 67 percent of Americans want the president to be Christian and 52 percent said they consider Mormons to be Christian. Twenty-two percent of those polled said they don’t think Mormons are Christians and 26 percent are unsure.
“I do believe they are moral people, but again there is a difference between being moral and being saved,” Linda Dameron, an evangelical Republican in Independence, Mo., told the Tribune.
More than 40 percent of Americans would be uncomfortable with a Mormon as president, according to a new survey that also suggests that as more white evangelical voters have learned White House hopeful Mitt Romney is Mormon, the less they like him.
A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute released late Monday also shows that nearly half of white evangelical Protestant voters — a key demographic in the Republican primary race — don’t believe that Mormonism is a Christian faith, and about two-thirds of adults say the LDS faith is somewhat or very different than their own.
You should also keep in mind that if Mitt Romney gets the nomination, Hollywood and the mainstream media will conduct a vicious, months’ long hate campaign against the Mormon Church. They will take every opportunity to make Mormons look weird, racist, kooky, scary, and different. Would this be a decisive factor? I’d like to say no, but by the time all is said and done, it’s very easy to see Romney potentially losing hundreds of thousands of votes across the country because of his religion.
7) He’s a flip-flopper. Maybe my memory is failing me, but didn’t George Bush beat John Kerry’s brains in with the “flip flopper” charge back in 2004? So now, just eight years later, the GOP is going to run someone that even our own side agrees is a flip-flopper right out of the gate? Romney doesn’t even handle the charge well. When Brett Baier at Fox pointed out the obvious, Romney’s response was to get huffy and deny that he was flip flopping, which is kind of like Lady Gaga denying that she likes to get attention. If Mitt can’t even handle run-of-the-mill questions from FOX NEWS about his flip flopping, what makes anyone think he can deal with the rest of the press in a general election?
There are a lot of issues with trying to run a candidate who doesn’t seem to have any core principles. It makes it impossible for his supporters to get excited about him because you can’t fall in love with a weathervane. Even worse, since politicians tend to be such liars anyway and you know Romney has no firm beliefs, it’s very easy for everyone to assume the worst. Democrats will feel that Romney will be a right wing death-beast. Republicans will think that Romney will screw them over. Independents won’t know what to believe, which will make the hundreds of millions that Obama will spend on attack ads particularly effective. Ronald Reagan famously said the GOP needed “a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors.” That’s particularly relevant when it comes to Mitt Romney who has proven to be a pasty grey pile of formless mush.
Why don’t you just move on over to Daily KOS, getting sick of your constant bashing of Romney. If Obama wins in 2012 don’t whine about four more years of Obama!
Like it or not, Mitt will be the nominee.
It’s time to get with the program.
People like you AND romney remind us why many of us will NEVER vote for romney. In January romney was told he should reach out to conservatives and he said he did not have to, that conservatives will vote for him. He has rejected conservative invitations and has repeated over and other that we will vote for him. That is pure arrogance, just as you telling us to get with the program is.
Romney has lied about who he is and what he has done and about his opponents. He cheated in Iowa and several other states. He destroyed good people to get power for himself. He bought this nomination. Plus he's in a cult. He is no better than obama.
As far as the GOP helped him do all this. They are just as bad, if not worse.
When I think of Mitt, for some reason Vonnegut comes to mind.
I’m not sure, “Breakfast of Champions” or “ God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” comes to mind.
I’ve long since yardsold them.
KT
“Get with the program” means recognizing that come November you will have only one option that matters.
Regardless of what you may think about Romney a vote for anybody else is a vote for Obama.
I voted for Gingrich in the Ohio primary.
Gingrich in GA for me.
We Floridians also will have to wait to find out if our delegates will be awarded “proportional” or “winner take all” which will certainly mean different results. This race is not over, for sure!
For those who might be interested, here are the upcoming events for Newt:
Tuesday April 17th
Callista Gingrich to visit the Middletown YMCA
Tuesday, April 17 – 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET
YMCA
792 Valley Road
Middletown, RI
Note: Callista will read her book Sweet Land of Liberty
Callista Gingrich to visit the East Providence Library
Tuesday, April 17 - 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
East Providence Public Library
41 Grove Avenue East
Providence, RI
Note: Callista will read her book Sweet Land of Liberty
Callista Gingrich to speak to Greenwich Republican Town Committee
Tuesday, April 17 – 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET
Caprice
455 North Main Street
East Greenwich, RI
Newt stops by Dauphin County GOP Reception
Tuesday, April 17 - 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET
Mount Hill Tavern Restaurant
2120 Colonial Road
Harrisburg, PA
Newt speaks to the Lancaster County GOP
Tuesday, April 17 - 8:30 p.m. ET
Lancaster County Convention Center
25 S. Queen Street
Lancaster, PA
Wednesday April 18th
Callista Gingrich to visit the Smithfield YMCA
Wednesday, April 18 – 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET
15 Deerfield Drive
Greenfield, RI
Note: Callista will read her book Sweet Land of Liberty
Newt teaches the Global Politics Class at Millersville University
Wednesday, April 18 - 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. ET
Millersville University
1 South George Street
Millersville, Pa 17551
Newt speaks at a Student/Faculty Town Hall Forum Hosted by The Robert Walker Center for Responsibility and Leadership
Wednesday, April 18 - 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
Millersville University
1 South George Street
Millersville, PA 17551
Callista Gingrich to visit Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island
Wednesday, April 18 - 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET
101 Dudley Street
Providence, RI
Note: Callista will tour the Women’s Oncology and Breast Health Center
Newt speaks at Delmarva Christian High School
Wednesday, April 18 - 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET
Delmarva Christian High School
21150 Airport Road
Georgetown, DE
Newt speaks at the Delaware Rail Splitters Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, April 18 - 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET
Timothy’s Restaurant
930 Justison Street
Wilmington, DE
Thursday, April 19th
Newt Gingrich to speak to the New York State Committee Annual Dinner
Thursday, April 19 – 7:30 p.m. ET
Sheraton Hotel and Towers
Metropolitan Ballroom
811 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY
It must be tough going through life with a glass that’s half empty.
The election in November is less about Republican, Conservative, Libertarian or other candidates than it is about sending the incumbent back to Chicago.
That’s all that matters. The rest is just noise.
Obama is in the WH today because of people like you who complained and complained about the RINO McCain. They swore, just like you’re doing now, that they would never vote for him. And they didn’t.
And we’ve had three plus years to think about it.
So I say again: Get with the program. The nominating process is over, your guy didn’t win. Get over it.
If you can’t be a leader at least be a good follower. Hold your nose or close your eyes or do whatever it takes to put the future of our country ahead of your narrow viewpoint.
No. Never go with a program unless you know 100% what the Hell it is going to be.
People voted for Obama for exactly the reason you stated. Millions now regret having done so.
“The election in November is less about Republican, Conservative, Libertarian or other candidates than it is about sending the incumbent back to Chicago.”
Do you now why fascists controlled so much of Europe during the early decades of the 20th century? Because they weren’t communists.
THAT is how ridiculous you sound.
Fixed
Just sent this to a strong Republican who said they would vote for Willard. Uggh!
“The reason we’re led by Marxists is because narrow minded Conservatives won’t vote for Liberals like they’re told...”
So much shorter and to the point.
Well, by election day Romney will be so low in the polls it won't matter.
I just can't see Romney being elected unless we get $7/gal gas and even then it's questionable.
We need a convention and a ticket: Gingrich-Palin would do it for me...
You are right about narrow minded conservatives.
If there was anything about Romney’s record that is not socialists and radical, I would vote for him. He invented Obamacare and imposed it on a state when he was Govenor! He’s totally far left socially. He’s a class warfare kook. He’s a global elitist. He’s on board with the global warming wackos and doesn’t see a problem with high gas prices. He supported TARP. He has not reached out to conservatives; instead we learn what we know is true - he’s an etch-o-sketch.
This is like looking out at the candidate Obama back in 2008. He sounds “moderate” but when you dig in you discover he’s a flaming wacko.
Just so you know, I am stealing that.
I think these ABO people should have been voting in the Democrat primary
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