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Trump To Romney: If You’d Hit Obama As Hard As You Hit Me, You Might Have Been President
Hotair ^
| 04/22/2019
| AllahPundit
Posted on 04/22/2019 8:39:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
ICYMI this weekend, the inevitable counterpunch after Romney tweeted on Friday that he was “sickened” by the Mueller report’s account of Trump’s dishonesty. It’s extremely on-brand, too. The Trumpiest possible reply after being accused of sustained unethical behavior is absolutely to say, “Scoreboard.”
What always surprises me about this criticism of Romney from populists, now including the populist-in-chief, is how little it credits Trump’s beliefs for his victory in 2016. If you’re eager to move the GOP away from Romney-style centrist conservatism and towards something more nationalist, blaming his defeat on his reluctance to attack Obama more harshly is the dumbest possible talking point. You should want to emphasize ideological differences as Trump’s secret ingredient in victory. Unlike the out-of-touch business-class moderate Romney, Trump understood that white working-class voters felt that the GOP was no longer catering to their needs. They didn’t want free markets and forever wars, they wanted tighter trade policies to protect American jobs and money spent on foreign adventures to be reinvested in American communities. And they wanted seriousness of purpose at the border. Yeah, granted, Romney pushed for stronger borders too as nominee (and was criticized for his draconian rhetoric by private citizen Donald Trump) but no one trusts a country-club Republican to crack down hard on illegal immigration. Trump recognized the symbolic power of a wall, just like he recognized that calling for a Muslim ban would show righties that he understood their cultural anxieties even if he couldn’t lawfully ban Muslims for their faith.
That’s the nationalist version of why Romney lost. There’s some evidence to back it up too. Romney himself has spent years trying to explain away his infamous “47 percent” comments late in the campaign that seemed to dismiss Obama’s working-class voters as freeloaders. The fact that Trump passes on that politically potent critique and resorts instead to dopey “you didn’t fight hard enough” shots proves (a) he’s not as invested in remaking the GOP as a durably nationalist party as many of his fans are, and/or (b) he really is incapable of viewing victory and defeat in terms more complicated than “strength” and “weakness,” with “strength” largely defined by how cutthroat you’re willing to be to achieve your goal. If Romney lost, it’s not because the Republican establishment’s policy priorities have been diverging from those of blue-collar voters for many years, with Trump having shrewdly reconnected them. It’s because he never called Obama a Kenyan or whatever. He needed to be tougher.
Romney hasn’t responded and probably won’t, as it’s pointless to try to win an insult war with Trump. His megaphone is bigger, he has many more supporters, and he enjoys sparring. Romney sympathizers already made all the obvious points in his defense on social media after Trump’s tweet anyway. Unlike Trump, Romney was facing an incumbent president in 2012, and not just any incumbent but the man who won more votes in his first election than any candidate in American history. At no point before the 2012 election was Obama’s favorable rating negative, whereas at no point after March 2015 was Hillary’s favorable rating positive. Even so, running against a reasonably popular opponent with all the advantages of incumbency, Romney managed a larger share of the popular vote than Trump did. But all of this is a footnote to history: The only number that counts is 270. Just ask Trump. He’ll tell you.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; romney; trump
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To: SeekAndFind
Romney was told by his masters to lose and he did by not trying hard enough down the stretch.
Biggest loser of all political time!
To: FranklinsTower
Romney was told by his masters to lose "You might feel a slight sting...."
22
posted on
04/22/2019 9:12:17 AM PDT
by
dfwgator
(Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: SeekAndFind
Lame analysis. Convince me otherwise.
23
posted on
04/22/2019 9:20:51 AM PDT
by
gogeo
(Liberal politics and mental instability; coincidence, correlation, or causation?)
To: Dr. Sivana
Was it actually ethics? Or sensibilities?
24
posted on
04/22/2019 9:22:00 AM PDT
by
gogeo
(Liberal politics and mental instability; coincidence, correlation, or causation?)
To: from occupied ga
I voted for the slimy backstabbing hypocritical bastard thinking that he would be better than the turd that befouled the white hut for 8 years. Now Im not sure that zero wasnt the better choice inasmuch as the turd at least consolidated the non liberal voters against the Democrats. Romney would have sown enough dissent and discouragement in the republican party to keep the country going down the socialist path.
I think the same way and ditto for McCain who I am now convinced was mentally unstable
25
posted on
04/22/2019 9:34:30 AM PDT
by
uncbob
To: SeekAndFind
26
posted on
04/22/2019 9:38:29 AM PDT
by
blam
To: SeekAndFind
Romney is a sick, sick man. He is one of the reasons I believe that the Illuminati do exist. He ruined lives as a venture capitalist. He was ruthless against 'pubs who might have won the Presidency against Obama, then deliberately threw the election. He's hateful and bitter toward President Trump, I suspect it's for the same reason that McCain was. His victory showed what they might have been elected to if they hadn't sold out to their deep pocket masters.
JMHO
27
posted on
04/22/2019 9:44:03 AM PDT
by
grania
("We're all just pawns in their game")
To: SeekAndFind
Wimp Romney.. now serving up innuendos and hearsay .. and standing by it.
28
posted on
04/22/2019 9:57:17 AM PDT
by
NormsRevenge
(Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!!)
To: JoSixChip
Romney is guilty of his wealth where Trumps not. Trump is the blue collar billionaire who feels comfortable with the people while Romney is a vagina monologue rich guy
29
posted on
04/22/2019 10:23:27 AM PDT
by
personalaccts
(Is George W going to protect the border?)
To: personalaccts
Trump built things with his money. Romney destroyed things with his money.
30
posted on
04/22/2019 10:24:25 AM PDT
by
dfwgator
(Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: SeekAndFind
Romney is a Bush League Republican, a Democrat in an R jersey.
He has never sided with the citizens and the rule of law.
31
posted on
04/22/2019 10:25:49 AM PDT
by
Lurkinanloomin
(Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
To: uncbob; from occupied ga
I think the same way and ditto for McCainSeconded.
I'm not proud of my votes for either Romney or McCain. I view them as choosing the lesser of two evils.
Though, without them, we'd not have arrived at President Trump. We'd be "celebrating" Romney's 2016 re-election. Or Hillary's. Jeb Bush would be a viable 2020 candidate.
Face it, for several decades, all we've had to choose from at the national level are Liberal Democrats, and slightly less liberal Democrats. No change, no rocking the boat. 'Tis why people hate Trump so passionately. He represents a 180 degree shift from the norm, and is overturning a whole lot of big money applecarts.
32
posted on
04/22/2019 10:40:26 AM PDT
by
wbill
To: SeekAndFind
I remember the second debate. Romney seemed to have done well in the first one. I kept expecting Romney to attack BO with the then recent Benghazi, and many other issues. Instead, he was so nice, so non-confrontational, so worthless.
To: SeekAndFind
blaming his defeat on his reluctance to attack Obama more harshly is the dumbest possible talking point. You should want to emphasize ideological differences as Trumps secret ingredient in victory.False dichotomy - there's nothing inconsistent about saying that a better platform OR a more energetic attack could have beaten 0bama. Not to mention that a bland Rat-lite platform goes hand in hand with a weak attack - how do you energetically attack someone with whom you 80% agree?
34
posted on
04/22/2019 11:35:35 AM PDT
by
NobleFree
("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
To: SeekAndFind
AllahPundit lays out a great case why he/she should be
doing restaurant reviews instead of political hackery.
Say it however you choose but Trump won for two big and
one small reason(s). He fought back which is something
Romney wouldn’t do, he went against a terrible
campaigner in Hillary, and he wasn’t running against
an incumbent president.
35
posted on
04/22/2019 12:59:56 PM PDT
by
Sivad
(Demo M/O = infiltrate, overtake, politicize, weaponize)
To: SeekAndFind
Romney is a loser. No big accomplishment LOSING the race for President and then running for Senate in a lay-up election. Sheesh, even Hillary knows better than to run for Senate now in Arkansas. Romney is a total loser.
36
posted on
04/22/2019 1:03:14 PM PDT
by
1Old Pro
To: Lurkinanloomin
This stuff is the reason we need to be Natural Law theorists instead of legal positivists. The built-in right and wrong of things trumps the abstract postulates of formal law. Scoundrels who have access to the mechanisms of lawmaking are still scoundrels, and we need to look beyond the formal exercise of lawmaking to see what it is supposed to accomplish.
37
posted on
04/23/2019 5:31:10 AM PDT
by
Mmmike
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