Friday, August 10, 2012

Notes on Ex-Governor Mitt Romney banging his head against the wall

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

-1-

I suspect this is mild compared to what we will see in September and October.  It really feels like the longer he bobs and weaves around the issue of his tax returns, the more steamed up the opposition becomes.

Let's face it, even The Republican-Tea Party members are cringing and having second thoughts as the Democrats declare open season.

 

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In 2004, Mitt Romney had this to say about John Kerry’s tendency to change his mind.   He starts off telling the audience that it's "standard operating procedure" in campaigns to "look at your opponent's record, you find someplace where he or she has changed positions and you say they're a flip-flopper."  He goes on:
"For those who don’t understand how he can be so vacillating, it stems from the fact that he is very conflicted, that he is drawn in two different directions very powerfully. If he’s with an audience, he wants to identify with and satisfy that audience, and will say what he thinks they want to hear. And if that audience, for instance, is on one side of an issue he’ll follow that, on another, he’ll follow another."



-3-

His numbers are sucking:

a) A recent Fox news poll (click on this link to see very detailed analysis of the poll) lists Obama pulling 49% of the vote and Romney 40%.  If the election were held today. Obama's lead in that poll comes from an 11% lead among independent voters.

b) Cnn:



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The Ex-Governor is running scared.  

While his band of surrogates keep hectoring BHO, Mitt himself sounds like he'd just like us to just drop it.  He doesn't want to talk about his record anymore.  Early in the campaign, he brought up Bain in every single speech and appearance.  But he would now prefer to not discuss his time with Bain 

Romney said on Friday that both campaigns would benefit if they agreed that “attacks based upon business or family or taxes or things of that nature — that this is just — this is diversion.” Instead, he said in an interview with NBC News, he would prefer a setting where he and BHO could talk about issues and differences in their positions. Really?  This wouldn't seem so disingenuous had Mittens not spent the last year trumpeting his success at Bain, and how he planned to implement the Bain model nationally.  And as for the tax mess--both his proposed taxing schemes, and his own shadowy personal tax record--the less Mitt talks about taxes, the better he will be.  By not releasing his own tax information, The Ex-Governor has almost given up the right to talk about taxes at all. 


Mitt Romney is still allowing "members" of his team like Donald Trump to hammer away on the birther and Muslim non-issues, continuing to imply that the President is not an actual U.S. citizen, and that even if he is, he is really a Muslim who will implement Sharia Law as soon the instant he is sworn in for his second term.

As Republican strategist David Gergen said recently:  "I think the Obama campaign is outmaneuvering the Romney campaign. They've kept him on the defensive on his taxes and on Bain, which is a key foundation for his campaign," Gergen said. "This rat-a-tat of advertising, this avalanche of advertising has taken a toll."

Finally, Gergen said "It's now clear that Romney can't win this election by default. It's not an apple that's going to fall into his lap because the economy is weak. He's got to take it away from (Obama)."

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Paul Ryan

Ex-Governor Mitt Romney was pretty much forced into selecting Paul Ryan has a running mate.  Paul Ryan will appeal to the "base" and even to the Tea-Party/Birther fringe.   But as to grabbing voters in the middle, or chiseling a few Dems into a Democrats For Romney movement?  Stillborn.  His choice for Vice President nets him nothing.  Nothing at all.  No votes, no momentum (a/k/a "The Big Mo"), and no gravitas. Romney's selection nets him zero votes--no one from the middle, and no one from the left.  And, as for the right/the base?  It leaves Mitt with a VP that most of his base would prefer was on top of the ticket
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