Tag: Mitt Romney
Frum: Romney is the Candidate of the Rich and the Old
Romney has now wholly identified himself as the candidate of the rich and the old. Nothing is to be asked from those over 55. Much is to be given to upper-income earners. All the burden of fiscal adjustment is to be piled on the poor and the young…Compassionate conservatism has been dead for a long time. Romney’s Detroit speech cremated the remains…he has now finally eliminated the policy differences separating him from the radical congressional wing. If Romney should win the Republican nomination, moderate and independent voters nationwide will be forced to decide: If they vote for Romney, who is it they’re truly voting for?
David Frum, neocon and former Bush II speechwriter
Romney Adds to Growing List of Bigger and Better Gaffes at Daytona
For those of you who are doing shots every time Mitt Romney speaks a gaffe, we have a seat reserved for you at the next A.A. meeting. The man can’t make a public appearance without saying something to vividly illustrate how rich and out of touch he is.
Consider his photo op at the Daytona 500 for example. After taking a valuable day off from campaigning in Michigan to jet down to the scheduled race* to prove he’s a motorhead like the rest of us average Joes, Romney blew it as he toured the stands.
Asked by an Associated Press reporter as he was greeting NASCAR fans whether he follows the sport, Romney said: “Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.”
That’s like saying you enjoy football because you hang out with Roger Goodell. At the Super Bowl. In the sky box.
But Romney wasn’t done. Oh no, not while he still has a mouth to speak with and a foot to fill it.
Romney-bot Suffers Motherboard Meltdown in Michigan: ‘Trees Are the Right Height’ … ‘I Love Cars’ … ‘Dais-ee, Dais-ee, Give Me Your Ansuurrrrhhh…’
ROMNEY-BOT: A little history. I was born and raised here. I love this state. It seems right here. The trees are the right height. I like seeing the lakes. I love the lakes. There’s something very special here. The Great Lakes, but also all the little inland lakes that dot the parts of Michigan. I love cars. I dunno, I mean, I grew up totally in love with cars. It used to be in the fifties and sixties, if you showed me one square foot of almost any part of a car, I could tell you what brand it was — the model and so forth. Now, with all the Japanese cars I’m not so good at it. But I still know the American cars pretty well. And, uh, drive a Mustang. I love cars. I love American cars. And long may they rule the world, let me tell you. I want to do well.
Republican Party Boss: GOP Establishment Supports Romney Because He Is Weak and Will Follow Our Orders
All we have to do is replace Obama … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate … Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
– Republican lobbyist and party boss Grover Norquist, in a speech to CPAC 2012
15 to 6 points
The lead Rick Santorum has over Mitt Romney in Michigan, according to two polls released this week. Santorum, like Newt Gingrich before him, is riding a popularity surge after several recent wins, while Romney, the former one-term governor and assumed front-runner, continues to leave Republicans less than excited about voting for him.
Romney a ‘Puff of Presidential-Looking Air’
It’s hard to find a single Republican, including those most solidly behind him, who demonstrates true passion for him or can do even a persuasive pantomime of it. They call him effective, not inspirational. They praise his competence, not his charisma. He doesn’t exert any sort of gravitational pull on his party. There’s no full swoon…. Almost all of the presidents elected over recent decades have been propelled by pockets of intense enthusiasm, which can paper over so many specific political predicaments and eclipse tensions with the base. They were saviors before they were disappointments, not disappointments right out of the gate. And almost all of them had something solid — a resonant personal story or an outsize personality or a bold vision — for admirers to latch onto. Romney wafts through a voter’s fingers, a puff of presidential-looking air.
— Frank Bruni, writing in the New York Times.
Does Mitt Romney Dream of Electric Sheep?
In the 2008 presidential campaign, based on no evidence or rational foundation whatsoever, conservative extremists floated the idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, rather than his actual birthplace, the nearly as exotic (to them) locale of Honolulu, Hawaii. Right-wing media picked up the story and suddenly, and improbably, this bogus claim became a campaign issue.
Now, four years later, and despite assurances the president was born in Honolulu from Hawaii Republican officials, including the governor, and despite the release of the president’s birth certificate in both its short and long form, Birtherism lives on.
Given that, maybe it’s time we asked an even more serious question about Mitt Romney. Is he a human being?
