Mitt Romney’s speech (pdf) before the Values Voter Summit yesterday spells out his argument against the reelection of President Obama. He makes a grotesquely unfair argument that makes no acknowledgment of any blame the Republican Party has for the economic conditions facing the country. But it’s a frighteningly strong argument, nonetheless. He made a good speech that was a preview of the general campaign. Then he won the support of four percent of the conferees in their Straw Poll. Ron Paul won the Straw Poll, followed by Herman Cain. Rick Perry came in a weak third, with just 8% support.
Romney didn’t fail to pander. He promised to do all he can to overturn Roe v. Wade, to stop all funding to Planned Parenthood, and to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. He also promised to grant a waiver to all 50 states so that they don’t have to comply with the Affordable Care Act. He promised to end every “job-killing” regulation in the Dodd-Frank bill. And he basically said we will “Drill, Baby, Drill.” The only base he failed to cover was the defunding of public broadcasting.
He said all these things and then less than one in twenty of the people who had listened to him lent him their support. Meanwhile, Rick Perry, who should be a natural fit for this audience of evangelicals, fared little better. His problem is immigration. These “values voters” really hate Latinos. It’s interesting that border-state Republicans like Perry and Sen. John McCain are the most sensible about immigration policy. But even the hint of reasonableness is a major liability for a Republican candidate these days.
When Rick Perry is too moderate, your party is unhinged. But the larger problem is that we can’t fix our problems in this country because anyone who will acknowledge reality is shunned by the right. Mitt Romney may very well be the Republican nominee simply because no one else is plausible. And he might try to move the Republican Party back a few steps towards the real world. But he’s already promised to govern as a wing-nut, and he’ll have no choice but to staff up his administration with wing-nuts. There is no space left on the right for a moderate.
Romney wins straw poll at Values Voters Summit
What are you talking about? He won it! 😉
Yeah, four years ago.
Yeah, I know…I indicated that with the ;).
Anyway, McCain came in dead last in this poll last time was my other point.
Right.
But here’s an even bigger reason from Thomas Friedman:
We live in End Times. The Moustache of Understanding has joined the Obama-isn’t-bully-pulpit-enough forces.
I’m getting my white robes on and going up on the roof now…
Take heart, BooMan, in the knowledge that Mitt doesn’t mean a freaking word of it; that he is completely, shamelessly pandering; and that he will flip-flop and abandon these suckers the moment it is politically useful to him to do so.
You think there are a lot of whiners on the left complaining about a disappointing president? Mitt Romney with a Democratic Congress would cause a mighty whine to go forth that would be detected on seismographs.
Mitt Romney with a Democratic Congress would cause a mighty whine to go forth that would be detected on seismographs.
By whom? You mean he’d tried to govern like Palin governed Alaska in the short time she was Governor?
Howard Schultz on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS this morning had a much too brief discussion on America’s lack of will to fix an economy which is entirely fixable.
That was followed by a much too long piece with Tom Friedeman where he use the observation from his new book on the Chinese building of an impressive new conference center in two months whereupon he had returned to the US and found the two escalators that had been under repair for two months were still disfunctional in the NY subway station.
Simply put, when a country misplaces its perspective of representation it loses the best parts of its will.
I can’t stand Friedman.
He’s never done an honest day’s work in his life.
He doesn’t mention that China is not a free society.
Certainly, but my point is that China’s version of Will and their version of its perspective is entact and serving to drive China forward whereas our will is not entact nor does it reflect our perspectives.
That escalator needs a sign….The 1% has decided this will not be repaired. Or….Pass the Jobs Bill.
In a country where Velveeta<sup>TM</sup> is widely considered ‘cheese’, on the strength of well-crafted regulations and massive marketing, why wouldn’t you get a President Romney?
He looks like one, certainly. And he makes President-noises. There are 100 million voters, roughly, in the US. 70 million of them look that far if they look at all.
Romney may promise to govern as a wing-nut, and have no choice but to staff up his administration with wing-nuts, but next-to-nobody cares. (Present company excluded.)
And a not-inconsiderable slice of those who do care will help Romney into the White House because they Have A Point and need to Send A Message.
Unfortunately I have to agree with this. We have the politicians we deserve. I can’t believe that people elected Bachman, Palin, Perry, Romney to importnat offices, but they did. Thats the real reason why nothing can get done in washington. If we want better policies we (the country that is) had better start paying attention and stop voting in nutjobs.
You know why Velveeta is widely considered “cheese”? Because according to the official line, all names are arbitrary. If everybody, or most people anyway, agree to call it cheese, then it’s cheese. And it does sort of looks like cheese, it does sort of taste like cheese.
Americans are taught that they should have the will to faith. And what does “arbitrary” mean? — “by will.” So many of us think Velveeta SHOULD be cheese because we believe we are being good little Americans by willing it to be cheese.
This is the tough-minded but soft-brained underbelly of American culture. However, there’s more to America than that and I still think Obama will kick ass.
Oh yeah!
Then we will have to do it without the right. Since Teabaggers will insist that Obama is a Socialist no matter what he does, why doesn’t he try going Left for once? And don’t tell me about DADT. That’s not Left anymore. It’s mainstream. When my anti-gay wife says “why don’t they just leave those poor people alone? They can’t help the way they are.”, it’s mainstream.
How many votes in any conceivable Congress would a series of bills establishing State control and/or ownership of the commanding heights of the economy get, do you figure?
Now you’re talking like a Republican! If by “State control and/or ownership” you mean any regulation or planning or stimulus at all, which is what I think is actually being suggested, then I would venture to say that the number might vary according to how one went about it. I won’t bring up unexpected factors, because no such factors are expected.