Why Do I Want To Like Mitt Romney?
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 | Mitt Romney | Pandering — Comments (26) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Because of passages like this one:
Mitt Romney's mind is a marvel -- a calculating, evaluating, inquisitive, all-consuming consulting machine, formed on his CEO-father's lap, trained in Harvard's business and law schools, and perfected while making hundreds of millions in the cutthroat world of private equity investing. There is not a spreadsheet that does not pique his interest, not a bureaucracy he does not itch to streamline, not a widget factory he does not wish to understand.
"I'm so excited to see this product!" he exclaimed Saturday in Lutz, Florida, outside of Tampa, while visiting a company called Opinicus, which makes "Level D" flight simulators.
"I don't think I have seen a more impressive layout at a facility, and I have seen some extraordinary facilities," he gushed a few hours earlier, after touring a coupon-making ValPak plant in Largo.
"Unfortunately, the utensils are not as hard as they need to be," he said over lunch at KFC, where the cholesterol-soaked skin of his fried chicken was overwhelming his plastic knife and fork.
Read on . . .
Yes, it's geeky. Yes, it's nerdy. I like geeks. I like nerds. I like smart people and smart people like Mitt Romney are loaded with potential.
Which is why I am as outraged as Ben Domenech over the fact that Romney apparently decided to launch a last minute attack on John McCain for opposing the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. Let me get this straight: Romney, the newly-minted small-government conservative now believes that it is a good idea to have government expand entitlement programs? And if Republicans disagree--out of a no doubt quaint respect to the idea of limited government--they are to be attacked for it?
I guess that this rant concerning Romney's decidedly non-free market stance on a whole host of economic issues was warranted then. And yes, there are plenty of other Republican candidates who are guilty of having forgotten the need for and value of free markets. But voting against the prescription drug benefit should constitute a no-brainer for any self-respecting small-government type. It certainly should constitute a no-brainer for someone like Romney, who presents himself as an expert on all aspects of economics. Perhaps at some point in time, Romney would be so kind to inform the rest of us how we are supposed to take him seriously as a small-government Republican if he can't even get this issue right?
I want to like Mitt Romney. I would very much like to get on board with his campaign--even at this late stage, with McCain within kissing distance of the nomination. But he certainly appears to be determined to make it hard for me to do so.
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AND the more you know about them the worse it gets;
"Mitt Romney's mind is a marvel"
"...In Michigan, the frustration over Romney's complete disingeniousness about "bringing your jobs back" conjured a rare degree of camaraderie, and we caucused together and came up with a list of questions that we agreed to ask no matter who got called on at the next press conference. For instance: "If Bain Capital was going to invest in the auto industry, what segment would it invest in, and how would that help Michigan?" Salon's Mike Madden actually got that in, but it elicited a non-answer: "I've been out of the private sector too long to advise people on that kind of thing." In other words, his experience in the private sector is relevant, until he's called upon to use it."
One Lie Too Many
http://www.timeblog.com/swampland/2008/01/one_lie_too_many.html
Candidate Research - Know Who You’re Voting For ( The Easy Way ) http://tinyurl.com/2sowta
“I believe that conservatives beat liberals only when we challenge their outdated positions, not embrace them. This is not a time for philosophical flexibility, it is a time to stand up for what we believe in,” - Fred Thompson
As the boomers get older it will only get worse. I read several years ago that the Dems going farther and farther left would pull the Republicans with them. This has absolutely happened. Your run-of-the-mill Republican today is more lefty (big government, cradle-to-grave entitlement-minded) that Dems of the early 60s, it seems. The Dems are over the cliff and we're chasing them.
Sure seems to open a big vacuum for someone to the right of us.
You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
...Zell Miller?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/01/politics/main640299.shtml
“I believe that conservatives beat liberals only when we challenge their outdated positions, not embrace them. This is not a time for philosophical flexibility, it is a time to stand up for what we believe in,” - Fred Thompson
Spitballs?!?! He was the best thing about the '04 convention.
This year most of our candidates are to the left of him. You're right; he proves my point. But he is old-school Dem, not the spittle-spewing, swamp-dwelling hatermongers we are witnessing today.
You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
Let me address your overall question, as stated in the title (not addressing any specifics on Medicare prescription drug benefit program).
If you want to persuade yourself to drop McCain and support Romney, ask yourself if you would be happy after years of McCain's (and Juan Hernandez's) open borders. I mean, like, all those immigration, residency and employment laws are, like, so unjust, man. Open your heart, man, and open your wallet NOW, Senor Moron.
Related to this !hola! policy: remember McCain's favorite little quip about "that soldier whose wife is illegal...of course we're not going to deport her!"? IF NATIONAL SECURITY (and pardon my narrowmindedness, but I'm referring here to the country called the United States of America) bears any weight in your considerations, ask McCain sometime if he knows who crossed the border just before and just after this fabled "illegal wife". It is not unreasonable to ask: just another honest-but-hungry person or al Qaeda?
...Willard is only slightly less vile than McCain? Because he's just barely smart enough to fear his boss...we, the people.
“I believe that conservatives beat liberals only when we challenge their outdated positions, not embrace them. This is not a time for philosophical flexibility, it is a time to stand up for what we believe in,” - Fred Thompson
It's not a fable. Although I know that doesn't change your argument, I just wanted to point that out.
"Fred's my conservative guru, but McCain's my President."
The McCain-Romney battle is very similar to the 2004 Bush-Buchanan race. Why? McCain hired the Bush campaign and apparently Romney has hired the Buchanan campaign.
If Romney wants to have any hope at all, he needs to FIRE them NOW! It is their negative campaign and negative talking points that killed the Romney campaign in Florida as much the Crist endorsement.
If anyone had noticed, I had been leaning Romney and wanted him to win to promote Conservative ideas. However, that is not what his campaign has become. It is just about tearing down the other candidates, so he can look good in comparision. I had thought he learned his message after New Hampshire.
It was the 2004 Buchanan campaign that tried to destroy Bush, as they wanted to take over the Republican party in the aftermath. Now they have latched on to Romney and he NEEDS to RUN away from them as soon as possible. I'm guessing they are threatening behind the scenes to talk Romney into running as a disasterous 3rd party conservative candidate.
Ray J. Tuleya
I would sue Time. "Cholesterol soaked chicken?" Greasy, maybe, but cholesterol? I would be very surprised.
I know. Threadjack. But really. WT...H is that all about?
I'm really very sympathetic to your point here. As a (former)Fred supporter, I really see no viable true conservative left in this race, but Romney appears to be the next best thing. I want very badly to get behind Romney, but this pandering just boils my blood. He did the same thing in Michigan when he promised a government bailout for the auto industry, and now he's pandering to the seniors in Florida.
The guy will obviously say anything to get elected.
... to the auto industry.
Read the speech. The fact that he has switched positions on some issues does not make it kosher to make up anything you want and attribute it to him.
Heaven knows he needs some help now, any help.
Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now.
-White Goodman
but I didn't like the way he went negative on both Huckabee and McCain in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I didn't like the way he started talking about "fair trade" and a federal industrial policy in Michigan. He's still one of three solid remaining candidates, but he would get smashed to bits in the general.
1. McCain, 2. Thompson, 3. Giuliani, 4. Romney
Because you like all other Conservatives dont want to have anything to do with McCain. I would vote for Hillary first. At least I can trust her to do the wrong thing. McCain is liable to to the wrong thing out of spite or snuggling up to the media. Hillary will stab me in the heart, McCain will stab me in the back. I guess its pick your poison. Show me a conservative candidate and I will support them. None of these RINO's will get my vote.
McCain was against the handout. Romney is for it. You want to like Romney.
What's your problem here? Why are you so shallow that you fall in love with his glib manner of speech and quick wit? If you were a 17-year-old girl, you'd be pregnant by now.
Visit The Scratching Post!
...that clears you to make personal attacks, particularly against Contributors? Thanks in advance, and we'll need to see that in your next post, please.
Alternatively, you can try apologizing. That's the other acceptable alternative.
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I can't stop laughing. I've got tears in my eyes.
"Ohhh Romney... He's so.. so.. dreamy! I think I might faint."
"Now that was funny I don't care who you are, THAT was funny!
If you didn't think that one was funny you need to get on outta here!" <~~~ Larry The Cable Guy.
Jim Tomasik
I was criticizing Romney for attacking McCain on this issue. And I said that I want to like Romney, but my point is that Romney makes it very hard for me to do so. Perhaps if your stunted intellect wasn't too busy trying to think up pathetic insults, you would understand that.
Was that cruel? Perhaps. Do I care? No. Maybe Eschaton or DKos are more your speed. Try them out. The good thing about Atrios is that his posts are short and your lips won't get chapped reading them.
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." --Friedrich Nietzsche
Romney has never been acceptable to the Southern wing of the GOP party. Would the South hang with him in the fall. Yes, but in the primary the South would never vote for a Northerner 1st. Then again there is Romney's peculiar problem with religion.
McCain because of his stance on Campaign reform is certainly not the 1st choice of Southern Conservatives, but we will hold our nose and support him.
By all accounts Bill Clinton is extremely intelligent and loves digging into policy details. IMO that made him a worse President, not better. OTOH I don't recall Reagan being accused of wallowing in data. The President needs to think in terms of principles and objectives, and let his cabinet officers and their staff work the details.
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
and the plan that passed was probably the best that could be hoped for. The alternative of not passing a plan would have turned 2006 into a blue tsunami instead of the mere disaster that it was.
I find it odd that McCain would have opposed this plan but does support drug reimportation and hammers pharmaceutical companies every chance he gets. Now that's econonically cretinous.