Is Mitt Becoming More Conservative?

The American Thinker ^ | August 31, 2012 | Rosslyn Smith

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...Protecting the middle class might be the theme of Obama's campaign ads, but the defining movement of this campaign came when Obama belittled the efforts of Main Street America when he stated that "you didn't build that." Those sneering words about smart, hardworking people revealed the ugly side of Obama's redistributionalist ideology. As in 2008, most of the media accept all the carefully scripted images of Obama as Gospel truth while they busy themselves trying to either hide or spin away all those extemporaneous words and deeds that display Obama's true beliefs and character as being either out of context or aberrational....

This campaign is coming down to two competing views of America. As it plays out, I think something very profound may be happening to Mitt Romney. Romney reminds me of a good many smart businessmen I have known. They live their own lives by a set of solid small-c conservative rules, but they are too busy solving smaller daily problems to think much about political conservatism as a coherent system. Such people often pay lip service to the left-of-center conventional media wisdom about big government and public morality even as they rigorously practice all the bourgeois virtues of thrift, hard work, neighborliness, sobriety, and sexual continence in their personal affairs.

....this very smart, very competitive man is facing an opponent who is perhaps the most rigidly ideological man ever to become president. Romney doesn't like what he sees happening to the nation, nor does he much like the person he is running against. Confronted with the problem of beating not just the person, but also the ideology, and then fixing what is broken, Romney may be discovering for the very first time that he is actually far more ideological than he ever thought he was.

[Timber Rattler]

The rule was put in place to insulate Romney from a potential 2016 TEA Party challenge. Go back and review the live thread

And this post specifically:

"Yup. I hate to tell them I told them so, but I told them so."

[Timber Rattler]

I also know that telling the truth, what ever it is, is also a conservative virtue.

Then start doing it about Romney and quit looking the other way.

[Timber Rattler]

OK, Mr. Fiscal Conservative, do you support Social Conservatives or not?

[doug from upland]

Ditto

[mkjessup]

I’m on the Conservative side. Obviously, you’re not. Enjoy your Romney hemlock.

I won't be enjoying a damn thing, which is what you and the Mitt-haters fail to understand, which is that THINKING conservatives (not kneejerks like you) act in what is in the best interest of our NATION, not our own purist, ideological interests, as expressed by Donald Rumsfeld, i.e. "you go to war with the army (or the candidate) you have, not the army you wish you had, or the army you might have in the future", in this case Romney & Ryan is the only viable vehicle for removing 0bama from the White House. EVERYONE wanted a more conservative candidate at the top of the ticket, but we didn't get it. Now we either vote AGAINST 0bama (even if that means pulling the lever for Romney) or we by default, end up supporting 0bama's bid for re-election by denying Romney & Ryan our vote.

Our esteemed Founder has chosen, albeit reluctantly to support the GOP ticket despite the deficiencies of the candidate, because the most important task in this election is to (once again for the logic impaired) GET RID OF 0BAMA!!

So who gets your vote in Pennsylvania this year? Pennsylvania is going to be close, and if it ends up in the 'Rat column, will your vote be the one that nudges those electoral votes into 0bama's total?

[Timber Rattler]

Write them down. Post them on here.

Heh, you made the assertion, you do your own dirty work.

[Timber Rattler]

A wise man (the owner of this board in fact) once said that if you’re not a Social Conservative, then you are NOT Conservative. So I guess you just outted yourself.

[bkepley]

Strange then that the Tea Party spokesman I saw on CSPAN said he was very happy with Romney.

[Timber Rattler]

So who gets your vote in Pennsylvania this year?

None of the above.

[Timber Rattler]

The TEA Party has a spokesman? That’s news to me. When did it become an official party? This spokesman is certainly not speaking for me.

[Old Sarge]

Big party over here...

[Timber Rattler]

Which is why we’re not letting it happen again.

Can't have any dissent now, can we?

[mkjessup]

A wise man (the owner of this board in fact) once said that if you’re not a Social Conservative, then you are NOT Conservative. So I guess you just outted yourself.

That wise man is supporting Romney & Ryan, so looks like you just jammed both feet into your mouth.

Good luck pryin' them out Virginia.

[Timber Rattler]

Well, let’s ask the Boss himself what he thinks about the GOP-E attacks on Social Conservatives, and whether or not you can actually be a Conservative but NOT a Social Conservative...

[bkepley]

The TEA Party has a spokesman? That’s news to me. When did it become an official party? This spokesman is certainly not speaking for me.

Quite true and vice versa. You do not speak for the Tea Party.