Romney’s Daunting Challenges
The swing state polls are discouraging. The news is bleak. The press is filled with articles about what’s wrong with the Romney campaign.
And some of those doing the carping hail from the right. Others on the right are busy cheerleading and saying it’s all a ploy to demoralize us, and that the polls are rigged. And although there is little doubt that some of the negativity is an attempt to dishearten the right, and that some polls are rigged and others just poorly designed, some of the problems with the Romney campaign are very real.
But every campaign has its inevitable problems — its disagreements and dissension and errors and missed opportunities. Keep on blaming Mitt Romney and you’ll miss what’s going on. It’s not really about Romney at all; he’s just the present focus.
Let’s take a look back. During the 2008 campaign, it didn’t take long to see that Obama would do whatever it took to win, and that he was very good at finding out what that “whatever” might happen to be. In fact, one might say that the politics of destruction, subtle or direct, coupled with the simultaneous ability to present himself as a really nice guy, has been the greatest skill he’s demonstrated so far. He certainly isn’t good at governing.
Go back to Obama’s Chicago days and you’ll see it clearly (see this and this if you need a refresher course), and remember what happened to Hillary Clinton in 2008. Despite the fact that she was no political neophyte, Obama mowed her over and she hardly knew what hit her. Flailing around to find an effective way to counter-attack Obama, she came up empty.
Initially, when Obama first became president, it made sense to conclude that his chances for a second term would depend on how well he performed in his first. But in retrospect, it seems clear that Obama’s popularity and electability have never rested on his record of accomplishment, and it was an error to think that his becoming president would change that.
And after all, who among his previous supporters is going to turn on him and vote for Romney instead? Not the left, or most liberals. Not white voters who are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on his record because they feel so good about themselves when they vote for the black candidate. Still others who probably won’t leave Obama are those low-information voters who might theoretically be swayed but who don’t like to dig too deeply into things and are pleased with Obama so far because he’s “likeable” (whatever that might mean), and who are susceptible to sound bites and headlines in an MSM with a mission to help re-elect Obama by presenting everything Romney does as bad and ignoring or minimizing Obama’s errors.
I’m definitely nervous, but I think Romney can do it, and I think he may go on to win a few states not currently in his “likely” column in the polls (namely Michigan, and possibly also Pennsylvania). It’s definitely a formidable challenge because he has to get out a positive message of what he will do, while at the same time forcefully attacking the Obama record, and he has to do so in an environment when the slightest mis-step or problematic word choice will be picked up and used as a bludgeon by the press.
The press is still working hard covering for Obama, but some of Obama’s failures have been acknowledged in the past month–barely, but they’ve gotten more coverage than they would have four years ago. Furthermore, throughout his presidency, the more people see of Obama, the more he acts like the demagogue he is, the less they like him. We’ve also got the debates coming up, and although the moderators will be trying to trip up Romney, Obama is out of practice speaking in that format, and he’s bound to make more gaffes like we saw from this week’s Univision interview. No matter what the press tells us, I think Obama will continue to lose momentum over the next month and a half. When it comes down to it, I believe that Republicans will turn out heavily, and independents will mostly break for Romney.
This blogger also expects that the independent vote will be the decisive factor, simply because diehard Dems will vote for Barack HUSSEIN Obama, regardless of his campaign of deconstruction for America. In fact, many see it as his strong suit.
On the other hand, Repubs will hardly pull the lever for the Radical-in-Chief.
That leaves the heavy lifting up to the Independents.
But, it is also the case, one who brings a knife to a gunfight is at a HUGE disadvantage. Therefore, if Romney refuses to go for the jugular, he may very well blow it, for many reasons yet to unfold.
Regardless, more than half the electorate (even this absentee voter)hope/expect to change the occupant of the White House! – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/20/americans-hope-to-change-the-occupant-of-the-white-house-an-anti-american-potus-runs-an-un-american-campaign-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Please describe President Obama’s jugular.
As the article contends Obama’s jugular isn’t his record or numerous statements of the private sector or redistribution.
The media protects the President from his failures because of a cult of personality. Barack Obama has a likable quality that even when the President has insulted the press pool of the White House and continues to offend them as soon as he gives them a little attention they fall over themselves in adoration with softball questions.
The most serious news interview of the President was in spanish on Telemundo where he wasn’t expecting it. They weren’t in awe or followers of his personality.
Barack Obama has a jugular and it is his ego. You have to get under his skin and there is only one way to do that: confrontation.
The debates are Mitt Romney’s chance to show America the true face of Barack Obama. He has three chances to do it.
Mitt Romney is systematically dismantling any arguments the moderators or Obama can bring against him in class warfare or personal attacks. Plus set up ways to talk about Obama’s vulnerable areas like the economy.
When Mitt Romney has set off Barack Obama he has been behind closed doors. They are both going to go for each others jugular. Obama is going to keep trying to paint Romney as out of touch, extreme and evil.
So please enlighten us. What is Barack Obama’s jugular?
His jugular includes exposing all his failed promises,particularly his promise to heal the nation, and be an inclusive leader. There are so many examples to choose from to prove otherwise, it would take all night to list them. Detailing what has really come to pass from his policies is imperative too, result by result.
In fact, when going after leftists one doesn’t just list a scorecard. One has to have both the facts straight, plus an ability to make the other side appear as they are – out of touch with the average American, serial liars, and a destroyer of the American dream, as opposed to their potential healer.
By demonstrating how the POTUS has turned the American dream into an American nightmare, one can easily get under Obama’s achilles heel – his thin skin and his narcissist ego. Doing so, with a certain amount of ridicule, would place him completely off his game.
Regardless of the media’s spin, the debates will showcase the above, if done effectively.
One of the little secrets that no one dare talk about in this election is how the conservative evangelical Christian vote will come out for Romney. In short, are they going to crawl through broken glass and flames to vote for a man who belongs to a church that believes Joseph Smith can save you better than Jesus Christ because the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was “not enough,” that a new revelation was needed because the one we had wasn’t good enough?
“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God.” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p. 188).
Personally, I’m not a religious person, so I have no investment in the truth or non-truth of anyone’s beliefs. I don’t care. I am just trying to imagine what an evangelical might be thinking in terms of casting a vote for Romney.
As far as the swing states you mention, Michigan and Pennsylvania, they are gone and have been for a while. Ohio is most certainly gone. Of course, you can go to Rasmussen to get some hope and encouragement. However, do pay attention to something that is beginning to quietly happen as we speak. The establishment and GOP leaning Super PACS are beginning to redirect their resources to the down ticket races. This will increase in the days and weeks ahead. Not to mention the fact that Romney’s fundraising prowess was greatly exaggerated. Indeed, he’s having money troubles right now. Also, when you have the likes of Peggy Noonan and Michael Gerson twisting the knife in your back you can say it’s pretty much over. Remember, Noonan was one of Romney’s biggest cheerleaders. No one would (or should) question their conservative bona fides.
Your “concern” is noted, MOBY.
But next time if you don’t want your cover blown don’t talk about the conservative “bona fides” of Peggy Noonan.
“…the likes of Peggy Noonan…” Okay, I laughed out loud.
Noonan seems to be a bored old lady who thrives on attention and flattery. She’s been in Obama’s lap since O-speechwriter Favreau threw her a thin compliment, years ago.
As for conservative evangelicals voting for Romney, it’s the moral Mormon versus the secular Muslim. Easy choice.
Besides,
Her only claim to fame is the idiotic “read my lips” line that ultimately sunk Bush I. She’s been living off that bs for going on 25 years now.
President Obama is a Christian. The only people who believe otherwise are those who have been imbibing the rancid tea. Nobody questions President Obama’s Christian faith, not even Romney who isn’t a Christian. As far as the Mormon/Islam question, the two faiths have something in common. Mormonism is as different to Christianity as Islam is. Muslims, like Mormons, recognize Jesus as a prohpet. They just belerve Mohamad is the true prophet, like Joseph Smith is the true prohet to the Mormons.
Anyway, just ask the crowd over at Liberty University what they think of Romney.
CW, do you make this stuff up in your little head or does someone actually feed you your lines? I can see you squeezing your eyes tight while you type, repeating over and over to yourself, “I hope, I hope, I hope that what I say will come true!”
I don’t really have to hope for anything in terms of what I said. The whole question as to whether or not evangelicals will come out in droves for Romney remains to be seen. Especially, when you consider the fact that many of them believe he belongs to a cult. But don’t take my word for it. Liberty University, which you should know is the center of the conservative evangelical Christian universe, has this to say about Mormonism is their course offering catalog:
Page 173. Graduate course Theology 678—Western and New Religions.
Course description:
“The history, doctrines, and present state of the major cults such as Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventism. The course will also include a study of the Occult Movement. Emphasis is placed on the errors of these groups and on methods and materials for confronting them effectively.”
So, no I don’t make this stuff up. I went to the source, and as it turns out they happen to be the base of the republican party!
Those are a lot of words. I didn’t bother to read them. Anyone, were they worth the electrons?
And you’re gonna have an extra big dump in your Depends Undergarments in November …
Is that all you’re good for? Is that all that you got left? Pathetic.
Stop projecting, please, CW. It is unbecoming!
I am an Evangelical Christian. I will not crawl over broken glass to vote for Romney. In fact, I will not be voting for him at all. However, it is not because of his religion. I do not care about that, unless one is a Muslim.
I won’t vote for him, because he is a another lying politician, the generic Republican. He was chosen by the bigwigs in the Republican Party. He was given their backing (money). Few people of my stripe are voting FOR Romney. They will be voting AGAINST Obama. The religion has nothing to do with it.
This is a referendum on Obama’s performance as President. People cannot wait to throw him out (except a few curmudgeons like me, who refuse to reward the corrupt Republicans who foisted this candidate upon us).
You are trying to stir up a religious controversy where there is none. You do not understand us Righties at all. You think Romney’s religion matters to us? It does not. We are about results. Obama’s results are atrocious. Nothing else matters (except that I see Romney as the kinder, gentler more-of-the-same).
This Evangelical Christian will be voting 3rd-Party. Don’t tell me about my “wasted vote”. Blame the Stupid Party voters who were foolish enough to accept Romney as their candidate.
For a “rightie” you certainly have been duped by the left wing media. Romney has shown character and achievement, and your petty evaluation of him does not change the fact that he is vastly more qualified to lead the country than O’Bumbler.
A vote for a third-party candidate is helping Obama win another term as president. I’m surprised you haven’t figured that out yet. When the deconstruction of our country continues under his leadership in 2013, you better not complain. You helped it happen.
Quick Note, Obama is losing white voters pretty badly this election. The only reason some pollsters have Obama up near his 2008 margins, is because several pollsters are assuming a more beneficial turnout for Obama than in 2008.
Case in point, in 2008 about 39% of voters were democrats, numerous pollsters are now assuming 40, 41, or even 42% democratic turnout. Polls that use a more traditional spread are the ones that show is a lot lot closer. In fact an ARG poll today, would have had Romney winning narrowly, had the margins been adjusted to 2008 level turnout.
If we’re talking statistical ties at 2008 level turnout, then Obama is in real trouble, because turnout is unlikely to be anywhere near the beneficial to him this time around.
When Obama won in 2008, one of the first things out of Rush’s mouth on his radio show was, “now I don’t want people calling in and blaming the press”. Maybe Rush was right; that the press didn’t defeat McCain. McCain had a great deal to do with defeating McCain.
But this time around, the way the press has circled the wagons and defended Obama and skewered Romney seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, has definitely hurt Romney’s chances.
At the same time, Romney has hurt Romney’s chances by having such an amateur communications group around him, feeding him ill considered advice; creating off the mark ads, failing to come up with a smart, winning strategy of attack. The Romney group is pathetic.
To beat Obama in 2012, you would have had to totally understand what you were up against. And be willing to fire every media bullet at the truth. Execute every communication flawlessly. Unfortunately, no one on the Romney team had the ability or the nerve to do it. It would have required one to call Obama out for the miscreant he is. The American hater he is. The reckless decisions he’s made. I personally know the best creative in the business ( not a politial hack) and Romney wasn’t interested in his help.
When elected in 2008, Obama had every intention to completely ruin, wreck, bankrupt, break down, demolish, finish, ruin, shatter, sink, smash, spoil, torpedo, deep 6, wash up, undo, totally do in America.
Weaken the military. Accuse Americans of a lack of fairness. Ignore laws he didn’t like. Let illegal aliens run wild, turning them into voters. Accuse America of being a force for evil throughout the world. kill our system of free enterprise. Put communists in the Supreme Court. Loot our treasury. Bankrupt our values and our nation.
Obama’s intention was to destroy this nation, and take away our rights. And he’s well on his way to doing just that. He’s got no soul. He told people he was mourning the murdered Americans, then set out to party in Las Vegas. He’s selling an Obama map, desecrating the stars and stripes.
Where Hannity, Hewitt, O’Reilly, Malkin, the guys at Power Line, American Thinker and other conservative media outlets failed us is they were afraid to tell the truth about Obama; specifically that he was out to destroy us. If I hear how inept Obama is one more time, I’ll explode. Everybody knows there’s not a naive, inept, incompetent bone in Obama’s body. What he is is a liar to the marrow.
The general public would have responded to the truth about Obama. Americans can handle the truth.
And they know how to handle traitors. Plus, the political right has all the facts to back it up. Look at Obama’s relationships with Ayers, Wright, Resco and every socialist, Marxist big name in America.
This was the huge mistake; to refrain from calling out Obama as a mole in the White House; as a huge danger to our way of life.
Our Israeli friends said, “never again”. But those same people are forty some days away from handing over to B. Hussein all of Florida’s electoral votes. Labor Union traitors are voting Obama Ohio. Obama has poured so much money in northern Virginia that state is lost, too. Virginia is inhabited by scads of people with no moral compass.
And, you know what? In four years, you won’t be able to recognize the United States. Because the United States will be no more.
I used to ask people at PJM to look up the word, “scienter”, and then apply it to the real Obama. You think Muslim radicals are out to destroy you? Your President goes to bed every night and wakes up every morning thinking up new ways to make it happen.
On November 6, we don’t cast ballots just for President. We determine whether we want to see our country live or die.
rachel, you hit the nail right on the head. Obama is our mortal enemy. He’s been brazen about it right from the start.
Dupes blindly infatuated with their idol have much in common with him also. Taught to hate America, they think bad things he’s done are good and serve us right. They hate our military, and see favoring enemies, weakening friends, and endangering national security as sage, practical steps taken for peace, their false Moloch. They are lost to us.
How can O effectively be shown to be the enemy he is? Why has all evidence has boomeranged up to now?
let me take a stab at it.
the easy answers are, the media won’t let the evidence get a foothold, and the fact that anyone in real life could pull off such a fantastic snow job on our country seems so utterly fantastic that it has thoroughly boggled already badly addled pates to blubbering distraction. we are living among a population of bamboozled zombies seized by mass delusion and under the spell of denial.
one hard answer is the harsh fact that many of our pundits, like those rachel mentions, are scared to go out on a limb by themselves and tell it like it is, and perhaps they have good reason to be. the other hard answer is a question — does our candidate mitt romney have the courage to call obama out, and if so, the conviction, and then also the ability to do so effectively?
well stated, and good questions, too. But I’d still like to hear what Rachel has to say.
Sorry to correct you, but Hannity was the first to bring up the behavior of Rev Wright and his influence on Obama, and he did that early in the 2008 campaign. Hannity and Limbaugh were warning people about how Obama would govern well before election day 2008, but they couldn’t run McCain’s campaign.
but alas it didn’t register, not by any fault of their own, but it was just too early on. obama has a record now.
“That’s not to say it can’t be done. Perhaps even Mitt Romney can do it…”
Well, thanks for the thoughtful insight, Chicken Little. Did you really type this after the Univision interview?
Go online and watch Jorge Ramos – Jorge Ramos! – kick the hell out of Obama. Ramos slapped Barack repeatedly and called him a liar to his face. Barack’s response was to st-st-st-stammer and stall.
Does Barack really look like a winner, to you? The election will continue to turn against this failed president.
By yours and my standards Obama is a total loser. This whole ordeal has made me find religion. I find myself praying and not even realizing it. I have never prayed for anything harder than our salvation from this monster. Never prayed for anything personal this fervently. Are there enough people out there smart enough to realize that the economy is not still Bush’s fault and our problem with Obama is not his skin color?
Unfortunately, during his turn on Univision, the proud grandfather of Obamacare was kicking himself.
…And yet, I saw no clips of Romney’s Univision appearance.
While Obama was all over the MSM airwaves, getting his butt kicked by the Most Interesting Man Alive.
“Stay Thirsty, My Friends.”
It may be that it is too early for Romney/Ryan or one with their common sense to win. The very idea that creatures might succeed by trying. Hells Bells!
Somebody else has probably said this too but when the western media see their that their much loathed hegemony has been lost to the aggressively fighting triumvirate of China, Russia and Mid-East; when the world is too subjugated by these nation’s aggressive will to care what the western media think anymore, then the media will start to support the values which (did/should have) made Us/America unsurpassably great.
Bring it on. Give Obama 4 more years. Then give Michelle 8. The price will be horrendous short term but too much common sense has been lost for any Republican type to have a chance at fixing anything in that period.
Common sense…an avante garde undergound movement…fairdinkum, who’d a thought?!
1) Everything uttered between the conventions and the debates that is at all speculative (and that covers just about everything being uttered now), is absolutely worthless, and worse. The “troublesome polls” are worthless, in this “eye of the storm” time. Obama knows he is in trouble, that’s why his lies are so pathetically blatant now, and why the media are so pathetic in their outright treachery against the interests of a free people, in echoing every least desperate lie Obama comes up with. But Obama is not evil personified, and he IS naive and incompetent, because he is not just a liar — he is deluded, and literally does not know right from wrong in what he does or says. He was raised to be a political creature — which is, an unenlightened creature, not a self-aware soul — so he can only lead others astray in his willful, mad ramble through life’s thorny thickets, pretending, precisely as a child pretends, to be the hero in the game of life he plays at.
2) Romney hasn’t had much to work with, in the way of positive public support, from those who are supposedly on his side (hint: conservatives) but who have continued to damn him with faint praise or not-so-faint dismissals, of his record and his personal character (both of which are better than theirs, inevitably). To rewrite the warning words Benjamin Franklin gave to the hesitant minds of the new Republic in 1776: You have yourselves a hero here, to do what needs doing now, if you can make him President. After the debates particularly, it is time to really understand, and share with others whenever the subject comes up, what Romney can do for America, and with such encouragement sound the call to vote for him, with clarion strength. That is how you can legally and properly “vote early and often”.
>>The swing state polls are discouraging. The news is bleak. The press is filled with articles about what’s wrong with the Romney campaign.<<
If you're clueless enough to not analyze the polls for the worthless, biased garbage most of them are and clueless enough not to notice that 99.9% of the election stories that show up in the MSM are regurgitated, pro-Obama propaganda pieces. Yeah, then things look bleak. And, of course, we have the concern trolls like Jean Kaufman who write garbage like this at what is supposedly an alternative news site, regurgitating what she's read in the MSM and helping turn PJM into just another arm of the MSM. It's sad and rather pathetic considering what PJM was supposedly set up to be.
Here's some advice…stop reading crap like this and make sure you go vote. The entire idea behind the "Romney can't win" meme is to keep people from showing up to vote for him. That's the only chance the MSM has to get the boyfriend Obama re-elected. Don't fall for it. Ignore this Eeyore garbage and get out and vote (and volunteer and donate if you can).
Mitt Romney seemed the best of the available lot.
Like hell he did. Maybe to drearily predictable ‘typical Republicans’ — including some who are now among the first to walk away — but to no one else. The bullying tactics used by Romney’s SuperPacs during the primaries/debates should have provided the final warning — if you’ve got nearly all the gold, you own the schoolyard and can bloody-up the poor kids and walk away. Well, Romney and his handlers are up against bigger kids now, pros who hit hard, and they can’t handle it. You think yesterday’s man Karl Rove is the answer? Right.
So…it’s reality-check and damage-control time. The goofy team that can’t shoot straight or counterpunch but has nice hair is now down to relying on Oct ads, the debates and ‘hope’. Hope, it need hardly be said, is not a strategy.
The author’s final paragraph sets out the prospects nicely. Best bet for us peasants: get out in the streets and argue with strangers who profess support for Obama. If you aren’t up to it, he will be re-elected and you can turn out the lights instead.
The only safe approach is to assume there is no margin at all.
I don’t understand. I really don’t understand. Who is this invincible, endlessly clever and tactically brilliant Barack Obama? Where is he, and why don’t I see him?
This is what I see; true it’s from thousands of miles away but I did live in the US for a number of decades (and have stayed at Holiday Inn Express):
1. Barack Obama fits none of the descriptive adjectives/adverbs that appear in the first paragraph. Yes, he has charisma and knows how to play political hardball. Yes, he has lots of money behind him and ruthless people with him.
2. Obama has a tin ear. No matter how many times people have pointed out that his legislation – especially health care – is unpopular, he pushes on. He sounds very proud about things that aggravate many in the political center, and miffed at the criticism.
3. His lack of ability to improvise in the moment is clear, noticed by people, and should show up in debates. Does Romney need to improve his messages, get sharper and hit harder? Yes. If he does, the comparison will show up.
More but..Romney is not anything like a perfect candidate. He has strengths, though – success in business, a clear enough way of speaking, obvious intelligence. He needs to hit harder and ignore the attacks on his background and wealth. Those will continue. Maybe Obama will go to town on Romney’s Mormonism, but that will backfire with many for obvious reasons.
The issue, if Romney loses, is really not the quality of his candidacy but the over-time changes in the demographics, knowledge and biases of the voters as compared to decades ago. And if things are that far gone that Obama wins on the strength of ignorance and self-interested votes, then the American voter is responsible, and the society demonstrated to have been radically altered from just a few decades earlier.
Barack Obama’s greatest strength is Saul Alinsky.
99% of the people that I got along with up until 2012 hate me now, and it’s entirely because I will not vote for, and do not even like Barack Obama. They’re pushing me on Alinsky’s terms (Demonize and Ridicule, Force someone to defend positions they don’t believe in, abandon and shun those who won’t buy in, etc…). I’m seeing it happen to other people I know, too; losing their friends and families over this.
Obama will win because with many people, every other person in their lives will brand them as evil and abandon them if they don’t support him and vote for him.
On 9/11 one of our bases was attacked in Afghanistan and nearly 10% of our entire harrier fleet was destroyed. This was the Taliban’s most successful attack of the entire war and it wiped out over $200m in supplies and equipment.
The media totally ignored this just as they have all the other news out of Afghanistan over the last 3/12 years. Obama didn’t meet with his commanding general for almost a year after implementing his new strategy, similar to not meeting with his jobs council.
Obama called for a surge but then didn’t give the generals the manpower they asked for. Those surge forces are now on their way home, mission unaccomplished because our politicians lacked the will to give them the time and manpower to finish the job. We might see a few stories about returning soldiers but we wont see any stories about how the fight is going in Afghanistan.
And liberals wonder why the rest of us think the media is in the tank for Obama.
Who invented Cowboy boots? Someone who just steeped on an obama! I think even Putin envies our somewhat homegrown stumblebum. Where would our dear leader be if he were white? Have just read the new Dick Morris opinion and refer you to it. After he speaks,i have nothing to add!
The media knows that this is the end game election. Probably the most seminal Presidential election since 1860. Everything is in place to fundamentally transform America and disregard the Constitution as an outdated documented suitable for a different time. It only needs a 2nd term.
I wrote this post “Using Education To Create the Behavior Government Officials Want in Future Citizens” http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/using-education-to/ not only to call attention to what is going on now but to remind it is being built on an unappreciated based that began in the 1990s under the Clintons. Outcomes based education was about altering the prevailing values, attitudes, and beliefs that govern behavior and habituating responses from emotion not rational thought. Is there anyone more likely to know what the cultivated values and attitudes are or the pressure points that have been emotionalized that pols and advertising consultants from Chicago? Where all this social science and systems thinking theories and new pedagogies to push a collectivist consciousness began? Back in the 40s? And then in the newest forms as the Standards for Learning and Teaching that Ayers and Obama worked on as the core of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge initiative.
Both the Obama campaign and the MSM know what has been cultivated through the schools and the colleges and universities. They know precisely what buttons to push. Between the details of the Future Earth Alliance going operational in 2013 and the described goals of using education to lead the social transformation to the building Regional Equity Movement (before the Building One America conference in 2011 there was a Brookings summit in 1998 and Bruce Katz is on the active lecture circuit now), it will be an altered world by 2016. And that’s just what is planned.
Just imagine the unintended consequences of such a quick radical transformation towards theories that have always proved tragic in the past.
Have i entered a rug store? Mans ascendancy was the result of defeating gravity! Not much of that here!
clamdigger-
Not following your point. There is not much humorous in politicians deciding to limit what future citizens can know and what their values must be so they can be easily manipulated. Or large tech companies and other multinational businesses using ed and classic rent seeking behavior to rig the economy in their favor.
As I have said more than once, there is no widespread prosperity for anyone who is not politically connected in this Obama/UN vision of the future.
I use gravity as a metaphor because there are certain things that simply cannot be designed or intended away. We are credentialing too many ignorant people who will then push whatever theory any statist wants to bolster their own power and stream of revenue from coercion.
The 2nd Term would be all about the coercive power of the state. A classic case of the State against its People including many who think they will be the beneficiaries of govt largesse.
There are issues raised here that have an undercurrent unhelpful to the mission of saving this country from the small c communists.
For anyone who pays attention to anything I write (regulars here over the years might recognize some of my consistent themes), it is no secret what I thought about the slate of candidates chosen to run to defeat the Marxists.
I am also on record concerning Romney’s frailties and weaknesses as a candidate. His inability to “connect” easily with people and his sometimes awkward, clumsy, oafish political tin ear make him a difficult candidate to warm up to…he is clinical and a paint by numbers politician. He lacks natural flare, creativity, and is not artful in this arena.
That makes him a whipping post for a conspiratorial and propagandist media. The fact that he is successful gives them all the cheap shots and class warfare armory is being emptied on him unfairly. But, he handles them poorly and has no instinct for the fight with them.
On foreign affairs, the propagandist and apologist Ministry of Lies won’t hold Obama and his Marxist brigade accountable for anything…but Romney has been an easy mark for Marxists…he politically doesn’t know when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to walk away and when to run with the narrative. His timing and the manner in which he presents the narrative is “B team” quality.
Fools and imbeciles will fall back on the “RINO” charge, which should hold no sway over anyone with the IQ of Joe Biden or above…if this race is lost.
But, this essay is correct. The other candidates were worse, in terms of being able to win this thing.
We have Romney as our last best chance to save this nation. He is imperfect. His team is “B team” quality in terms of messaging and handling a despicable and conspiratorial propaganda and lies machine. Paul Ryan was a great call.
But, as much as WE can do (and we should do EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER), it falls now on Eric Cantor, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Susana Martinez, Thune, Noem, Alan West, Nikki Haley, …the “A team” to get off the sidelines and start hitting…hard.
Romney needs help. OUR help. ALL of our help.
The polls may be slanted…they are if they are run by the conspirators. Book it.
But, we should be blowing these Marxists out of the water and we are not. We have chosen our horse to ride, we need to ride that horse hard from now through the finish line.
If we have only Univision with the courage to ask the hard questions, we are going to have only ourselves to blame. We can’t rerun the primary. That’s a waste of energy and focus. The media is an enemy of truth. So, we have to make battle plans that take that into account and defeat their rigging of the game as well as the Marxists they grovel beneath.
“It would be tempting to state that your comments could be summed up with “I have seen the enemy and it is us”. But that would not be entirely fair nor correct. The fact is that there is no human being on this planet that could run against Obama and not be destroyed by the popular media while doing so. Romney is simply the target of the day. But even with that said it is not the popular media that is the main body of the enemy. The enemy is likely standing right next to us in the form of the willfully ignorant, the uninformed, the lazy, the hyper-partisan, the dependent, and the downright stupid with whom we will be forced to share our lives with as America sinks below the surface certainly shortly after the re-election of Obama or very possibly even after the election of Romney. We may have seen the last time that America came together as one as she did during WW II or on 9/11. The challenge ahead shall entail life in America when it is no longer the “United” States of.
America didn’t come together after 9/11. The Democrat party undercut everything President Bush subsequently tried to do to because they didn’t want him to appear to be benefiting from the situation.
The thing about Obama is his detachment from reality.
It used to be defined as his being ‘an intellectual’. Heh, no way; Obama is one of the most ignorant of history, economics, political theory, that we’ve seen in a long time. Nor is he ‘cool’, understood as an admired quality.
Obama, and his mega-watt smile, his wave, his jokes, is a Teflon Man. He’s not attached to anything. I suspect he moved into this ‘persona’ as a young boy, when he also became a clinical narcissist. But, it set up how he interacts with the world.
As I’ve said umpteen times, Obama lives in a virtual or imagined world; one that he controls, authors, imagines. He’s unrelated to the real outside world. Most of us can sense this but we don’t know how or why or what to call it. Hence, all the different descriptions.
He’s not able to relate to anything, nor can he permit anything or anyone to attach themselves to him. Therefore, he is not responsible for anything.
He doesn’t see himself as responsible for the massive 16 trillion debt, for the failure of the stimulus, for the explosion of those on food stamps, for the high unemployment. Listen to him; he says it’s always the fault of someone else or something. Bush, Bush and Bush. Ah, then there’s Congress; they won’t ‘do the work’. And the GOP. This sloughing off of responsibility to the above set has been very successful.
Then, he adds in the EU, the Japanese nuclear disaster, ABM machines, rednecks, FOX news…and whatever.
I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Obama is unattached to the real world; he sees himself as apart. He hasn’t a clue how to change things and it is well known that he leaves all policies and programs to others. His normal way to ‘do things’ is merely to appear, do the mega-watt smile, wave, talk jokes and platitudes and dash off. He seems to think that all that is needed, is for this personal appearance, and instantly, the real outside world, will succumb and fall under His Will.
This psychological characteristic has been picked up by us all, and accepted. We, neither the MSM or the public, expect anything of him other than this appearance.
Compare with Bush. Or Romney. Each word is critiqued, each action is analyzed and chastized; we consider them attached to their words and their actions and thus responsible. Obama? Nope.
You seem to characterize Obama as a totally uncaring and narcissistic fool which may be absolutely correct. But I am inclined to believe that it is much worse than that. He may well consider what normal folks would look upon as failures (massive debt, stimulus, foreign policy, etc.) as actual accomplishments in the great march “Forward!” toward the total transformation that he promised. I believe he does. Only at best is he the fool but, if so, there are many surrounding him both here and abroad that are not and are all too happy to seize upon his foolishness and convert it into a gain for the implementation of their totalitarian goals. Actually, I believe we are witnessing as victims the working of the greatest con-artist that mankind has ever produced. We may be living during the lifetime of one of the most significant beings in human history simply because it is the world that will collapse into abyss when the American lynchpin is pulled by the forces that Obama has unleashed. In that case the blame will fall upon the fools among us, and not upon Obama, who granted him the capacity to pull off what no other human being has ever been able to accomplish. Nothing that even remotely approaches the magnificence that was once known as the American dream and experience may ever rise from the ashes again. The situation is that dire.
Your statement
We have chosen our horse to ride, we need to ride that horse hard from now through the finish line.
is what should be the attitude of many voters dissatisfied with Obama, but unfortunately for the country while the only alternative to Obama is one of B Team quality, those capable of riding that horse are also only of B Team quality.
Nit picking like a bunch of prima donnas choosing accoutrements for a function.
Either it has not sunk in that they have no choice, or they are not too put out by the possibility of another 4 years of Obama.
Upon reading a Mort Zuckerman column today, he writes that Romney is out of touch because he said that the middle class is $200-$250K annual income omitting the “AND BELLOW”. The AP has done its job.
Have you seen Romney as unlikable? awkward? out-of-touch? tone-deaf? etc., or have you been told by word or mouth this is so?
I find Mitt Romney affable, straight-forward, likeable and well-spoken when I watch him. Please note the media is forgetting to tell us about the big crowds he is drawing. The debates will be the undoing of Obama
The mainstreamers have been hard at work yet again:
They conveniently left out two teentsy weentsy itsy bitsy words from Romney’s characterization of the middle class. What Romney estimated was annual income of $200,000 to $250,000 OR BELOW. [I am not aware that he specificed a lower bound, but that's very much beside the point.]
Just a teentsy weentsy itsy bitsy little oversight, that’s all. Nothing big.
OOOOPS, I missed Allan Crain’s post making exactly the same point (except for “AND/OR”) directly above this one. Apologies to readers.
Cfbleachers is correct. Four years ago I was critized for saying that the only hope for the Republicans to regain control of the white house was to run “a Romney” type former liberal that could also play the other side. I was correct and the Republican Machine saw that as well. However, I did not realize how many gaffs Romney would make on the stump. Those errors could end up being a real drag on his chances if he is not careful. He must be vigilant and plan his speeches carefully like Reagan did in order to win. And winning, is what its all about, not will nilly political principles. Thanks for the contribution.
Well the O’Dismal media team has tried to attack Romney, but has it been successful? Does anyone care that Romney cut the hair of some guy way back in school? Or that Romney is a rich guy (we already knew that), but so is O’Dismal quite rich. And horror of horrors, Romney donates money to his church. Wow! what a scoop. They trotted out the meme that Romney closed a factory and let some guy’s wife without insurance, except it wasn’t true. And Romney has money invested offshore. But so do a lot of the rich people in congress.
Think of the positives. Romney goes to New Orleans during the hurricane watch and O’Dismal trails after. O’Dismal is campaigning in states that he won quite handlily last time. If he goes there, he must be worried about getting the electoral votes.
And turn out. Are O’Dismal’s voters motivated? Are they jazzed about his “results”? Are the unemployed eagerly voting for O’Dismal? And this includes a lot of blacks and suburbanites. What about the Catholics after mandating that Catholic and conservative Christian organizations provide contraceptives and abortion pills? What about the Jews after O’Dismal refused to meet with Bibi? What about all the small business people suffering under excessive regulations? What about the farmers in the Central Valley? Or the coal miners and the pipelayers (after refusing the northern section of Keystone Pipeline). Or anybody in the oil & gas extraction, nuclear, or hydo energy businesses.
There is a whole new industry that has sprung up after O’Dismal was elected. Its called the “Tea Party”. If the alarm bells aren’t going off in your head, heart, and mind, then you’re too far gone and will vote for O’Dismal anyway.
I wish the timid would find some other way to deal with their anxiety than to write yet one more “concern-troll” article like this. It’s this kind of nonsense that encourages the biased media to keep spinning for Obama and the Dems. As long as there are suckers out there who are willing to take it seriously they’ll keep rigging the polls and committing malpractice in what they emphasize and what they ignore.
I think anyone who is not gravely concerned with the change in the winds of the campaign is either naive or a fool. When I think of the implications of defeat I become terrified. Can’t eat. Can’t sleep. Have heart palpitations. At the end of it all there is just me with my one vote. Romney is a fine candidate and will make a great president. Anyone as smart and successful as him would be an asset to our nation in this dire time of need. It took great courage for him to mount this battle. Our greatest most inspiring candidate would never be able to stand up to the media assassination that comes part and parcel with these vermin. There is no mortal on earth that can withstand a character assassination of the scale that Romney is made to endure. 24-7. 365 days. 52 weeks. I think it is wearing him down to the point that he is starting to lose it. Who wouldn’t? He does not think like the other side. Have their world view and isn’t that supposed to be the point? Mitt doesn’t. He is fine and decent and is unable to mount the underhanded immoral fight necessary. He has none of the Marxist dictator gene in him and I would not have it any other way for my president. The people from our side jumping ship instead of helping him are complicit and a disgrace. We should be digging in and supporting him. Trying to bear a little of the burden he is under. But no. Everyone smells blood in the water and turns tail and runs. More concerned with themselves than the country. Kristol. Krauthammer. Noonan. So sad that I am glad my grandparents who bled for this country are not alive to see it thus consumed. There are dark days ahead . I have a plan B to try and salvage what I have and hope to be able to withstand what is coming. In the meantime I am going to send him some money and an email to offer what little encouragement I can. Buck up and do the same . This is the big time. Do or die. We have a country to salvage from the jaws, the death maw of pure unadulterated evil.
Yes, it is time for the rest of us to stand up and do all that we can to help Romney. I’ve said this before, but large numbers of supporters being seen matters. It isn’t enough for this to be a battle of the TV ads. We need to take and make every opportunity we can to get out into the street and show who we are and how many we are.
The polls do make me nervous…however, we must understand that everything that comes out of the MSM is intended to help the Obama campaign. Looking at the underlying numbers…these polls seem to hugely oversample liberals.
Saw Gingrich on tv last night…he claims the polls are off by a factor of twelve to fifteen points. Maybe that’s just Newt…but I don’t know how Obama can be ahead in this economy. Makes no sense.
The MSM is still powerful media wallpaper…but they aren’t as strong as they used to be.
Agreed, it makes no sense. No one knows the truth, especially about the polls. IMO, only two things are clear right now:
1/ The critical importance of the Jewish vote in FL;
2/ The need for the proletariat — us — to get out of the armchair and start arguing with our neighbors. I fear many are too ‘virtuous’ to want to dirty themselves. So much easier to waffle and dress it up as wisdom.
This thread is a fine example.
“…because he’s “likeable” (whatever that might mean)…”
the Middle class got a slight peak at the whirlwind beneath them and they see wolf smile as the conservative who will protect what they have whereas Romney is the radical :he belongs to a “wacko” religion. He is a member of the Elite class and has passion only for class warfare as the writer at First things wrote yesterday the point made by the GOP rebelling against Mitt Romney
The only way Romney can now win is if he can convince the middle class that they will fall into great poverty if they reelect wolf -smile . Things seem to be improving the past few weeks in the economy so this would take a vision of the future beyond the month of Sept
Nowhere has the mainstream media been more detestible than with this whole Libya/Egypt disaster. For well over a week now, has refused to ask the Obama administration any tough questions, like why was the American ambassador even in Benghazi in the first place, especially on the anniversary of 9/11, and why was he NOT protected by AMERICAN bodyguards? We are getting NO answers to these vital questions, and yet the mainstream media is obsessed with how Romney responded and what Romney said shortly after the event. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Romney is NOT the president, yet the mainstream media is demanding NO answers from our current president or Secretary of State. And the mainstream media STILL is not asking why the White House story has changed so many times over the past week, but the mainstream media doesn’t seem to have any problems harping over Romney’s “lack of experience,” even though that has no bearing on what just happened in Libya.
And what about Egypt? Obama clearly said that Egypt is no longer an ally. Hello, isn’t this news after almost 40 years? Do you think it rates a few questions from the mainstream media? And how come the president of Egypt didn’t say ANYTHING about the attack on the American embassy there until almost two days AFTER the attack? Why did he only openly condemn the attack AFTER Obama called him? Not only do we NOT have an ally in Egypt, we may actually have a government that is openly sympathetic to the Islamists and the jihadists. Um, doesn’t anybody in the mainstream media think THAT is news?
The events over the past week only prove how in the tank the mainstream media is for Obama and how hateful they really are. If I were Romney, I would go on the attack and treat the media just like Newt Gingrich did before the South Carolina primaries. Time to take the gloves off and call out the mainstream media for what they are, a bunch of political hacks for Obama.
Sorry — but PJM was one of the groups leading the chorus of “Mitt is our saviour, he will beat Obama easily … look at all of his business experience … the Olympics!!! … He had to do Romneycare because he was in a liberal state, he’s not really a moderate, he’s really a conservative … See, he can attack, look at what he did to Gengrich, just wait until he unloads on Obama”
It is way to late to have buyers remorse
As I see it, if you survey the landscape, if the tests are–is the U.S. better off, generally stronger, are we in a better strategic position vis-a-vis our Enemies, are our national defenses stronger, our military more prepared and well-equipped, and are our military and intelligence leaders more clear-sighted, honest, tough, competent, decisive, and well-informed, are our relationships with our Allies stronger, are our Energy reserves larger and the price of Energy lower, are our national finances in order, is the national debt declining and deficit spending on the wane, are our businesses thriving, is the economy growing- with more and more people employed and with production inching higher, is the individual’s dependency down and his chances for independence increasing, is employment up, is unemployment down, is innovation being promoted or stifled, are healthcare costs stabilized or even decreasing, are household incomes and net worth edging higher, are literacy and basic mathematical skills on the rise, and are our institutions of higher education producing ever more and more highly educated and qualified graduates and are there jobs in our economy ready for them, are our families generally stronger and more stable and secure, are our GDP and per capita net worth increasing, has poverty been reduced, with more people inching up into higher income brackets and into the middle and upper classes, are our political process and voting more secure and more honest, has government become more responsive to the people’s will and more ethical, has the individual’s freedom, independence, and scope of action been protected and expanded, our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms more protected and able to be exercised more freely and without fear, are we more secure both at home or abroad–there is not even one aspect of Obama & Co.’s legislation, policies, appointments, and initiatives that has been of positive benefit to the U.S. but, rather, each and every one of these actions and policies of the Obama Administration has been to the detriment of the U.S. and its people; the Obama Administration has been a total and unmitigated disaster for the United States.
In fact, a suspicious person would harbor the growing conviction that such a massive, across the board decline in these key areas could not have come about just through sheer ignorance and ineptness, even combined with a horrific string of bad luck, but were, instead, the intended results of careful planning, and intended to deliberately weaken the U.S., and to “take us down a peg or two.”
Thus, the key questions are:
1. Can the MSM prevent enough voters from seeing enough aspects of Obama’s devastating record of abject failure in all areas, sufficient to make them reject Obama? Can the MSM continue to successfully peddle their artificially constructed, alternative reality—their very own MATRIX, in which Obama is a caring and compassionate “centrist,” crippled from the very start by the bad economy President Bush left him, but who has, nonetheless, gone from strength to strength, and whose policy successes have been extraordinary.
2. Just how alert, informed, and intelligent is today’s “audience” of voters, and will they take the long view and vote for the sake of the country and their posterity or, instead, vote for their own particular parochial and pocketbook issues (i.e. the issue of “makers” vs. “takers” in current society).
And if two or three generations of saturation Leftist indoctrination by the MSM, our schools, the churches, the Entertainment Industry, and many of our “opinion makers” has been successful, we are all doomed to travel down Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom.”
Great comment Seth. Next time, do us all a favor and use the Enter Key more frequently.
Domestically we’re in a depression. Obama’s kiss Arab ass foreign policy is imploding. Who votes for such a catastrophe?
All Romney has to do is come across as not scary in the debates and all the undecideds (let’s not forget that undecided really means unhappy with the incumbent) will fall his way.
I too am hoping that Romney stays cool and crushes every question thrown at him and turns Obama into a stammering mess during the debates.
But you just know Obama’s true believers in the MSM and the blogosphere have a first draft of their “Obama Creams Romney” articles already written.
Doesn’t matter- people will watch the debates for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
Hillary Clinton in 2008. Despite the fact that she was no political neophyte, Obama mowed her over and she hardly knew what hit her.
But she was a political neophyte. She’d never run for anything but the Senate, and that with her husband and POTUS throwing the whole weight of the Federal Government and Party behind her candidacy. Hillary single-handedly defeated healthcare in 1994 while trying to pass it and pissing off the Republicans who WANTED it, and along those lines almost single-handedly introduced the hyper-polarization which has haunted US national politics for twenty years now. Insofar as she was not a neophyte, she was a rolling disaster – and has continued that role now as SoS.
Obamba simply follows in her footsteps, is even more shameless, and is black. Hillary is Obama’s mother. Obama is a little less threatening within his party, makes a little better figurehead to those independents, at least. And nobody, especially the MSM, dare criticize him because they will be called racist. Even Romney.
At least until now.
Let’s see what the last month of campaigning brings.
Of course it is endlessly sad that Romney, simply as non-Obama, isn’t leading by twenty points. But the polls are an outrage. Dick Morris explained – they are using the 2008 turnout model, which NOBODY believes will apply this year. Using the 2004 turnout model, and assuming per tradition that most of the uncommitted vote goes to the challenger, Romney has a modest lead.
It is pitiful, troubling in many ways, that say Ohio and Pennsylvania aren’t showing strongly for Romney, but hey I’m sitting in Kalifornistan so I can’t throw stones.
I don’t much like Mitt on a number of bases, but I sure hope he wins. Go Mitt. Rah.
Josh, in regards to Ohio, all I can say is the polls are wrong, wrong, wrong. We won’t know how inaccurate and in which direction until election day.
Most Rs and Indies aren’t answering any polling calls. The general attitude is “I’m shutting up now, and showing up on Nov 6.”
You are right. I never answer polling calls either. I live in SW Ohio and people are getting fired up for Josh Mandel and Romney. Went on a bike ride to clear my head today. When I came back someone had decorated a 4 lane busy thorough fare. Hundreds of Romney and Mandel signs lined either side of the road. It was a sight to behold. I am going to go back and get a picture. It was very impressive and made me feel less blue
That’s always a good response when the polls aren’t going the way you would like them. It does give people hope, but a much harder fall when that hope is not realized. Two things that the Obama team knows and others do not: microtargeting and cellphones. The sophistication is unprecedented.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/victory_lab/2012/05/obama_campaign_ads_how_the_analyst_institute_is_helping_him_hone_his_message_.html
Step 1. Let’s give every Welfare recipient a cell phone for Christmas. Rich folk aren’t paying their fair share of the phone bill–we’ll make them pay for all those phones. While we’re at it, let’s give ‘em all top-of-the-line iphones. I mean, doesn’t it say somewhere in the Constitution that every citizen has a right to the best cell phone money can buy? And after all, it’s not our money, so let’s go crrrazy!
Step 2. Let’s use the power of the government to keep track of all those iphones out there. Yeah, yeah, I like where this is going. Let’s call up all those Welfare iphone users and ask’ em, hey, how’s that iphone workin for ya? Want some more free stuff? Just Go Big O in November and the sky’s the limit!
Step 3. Let’s think big. Really, really big. Let’s do a quick government query and find out who is voting for whom around here. If they are voting Democrat, let’s call ‘em up and tell ‘em that the president himself is on speakerphone and he is pretty pissed that they might not vote in November. Tell ‘em to get with the program.
If they are voting Republican, well, we’ll let the president himself do the talking. A nice chat with the commander-in-chief of the United States should take the wind out of their sails. Don’t think of it as intimidation–more like firm persuasion.
Step 4. Call up and thank the ever brilliant Cynical Wonder for defending our cell phone campaign against all those pesky citizens out there who think there are limits to the intrusion of the government into our private lives.
Romney just made the wrong turn on Syria. thru the voice of Dan Senor, who, fairly or unfairly, is too associated with the Bremer disaster in Iraq.
If the GOP is re-branding itself as not-Bush43, well, stop making it so difficult to pull the lever for Romney even as the NObama.
1. Can the MSM prevent enough voters from seeing enough aspects of Obama’s devastating record of abject failure in all areas, sufficient to make them reject Obama?
Do they need to when you are faced with
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Admits Obama’s Blackness Trumps His Failed Record
Such blatant hypocrisy and many Americans are still stupid enough to fall for the racism charge as the “victims” cry about their poverty.
A 50% black man responsible for 100% of black poverty.
Most polls are affiliated in some way with the main stream media. Most main stream media outlets are loosing or have already lost readers/viewers at an unprecedented rate. To me, there is no reason to put much faith in the polls as their main function in this election is to misinform and mislead.
Turnout is everything!
In Florida early voting begins October 27. I really recommend taking advantage of early voting. We should be prepared for shenanigans on Election Day. Also that will free up the day to help others get to their voting place.
If you live in Florida and are not registered, register by October 9. Every vote counts. Please take this election seriously and get registered if you have not already. Please make sure friends and family understand they still have time to register, but time is running out. If they need assistance to get registered or to get to the polling place, please assist them.
Just Google your county and elections and you should find all the information on polling places, schedule/locations for early voting and whatever else you need.
I truly believe that if we get a good strong turnout in the more conservative counties in Florida, Romney will win Florida.
Again, turnout is everything.
Here’s a thought on a lazy Saturday…the Romney campaign has a strategy, and they are sticking to it. Don’t you think they know they’re being outspent 6-1 in ads so far? Don’t you think they know how Obama and Axelrod operate, in great detail? Don’t you think they are watching the polls as carefully as everyone else is, piecing together everything into a reality with their own internal polling? Despite all of the noise in the media about “panic” and “flailing,” has anyone really seen evidence of either by Romney or his campaign? Here are two “tells” about what they are thinking: (1) Romney has stated several times “My dad said it’s not good to be right too early in politics.” (2) the senior strategists, when they allow an interview at all, state basically” “just wait, we have a strategy, we have thought it out, and you will see the results.” It’s a sign of the adolescents who report on our society that we have to know NOW, Romney has to do something NOW, or its over NOW. We all sound like a bunch of 3 year olds. Let this play itself out. If its October 15th and the polls are what they are, I’ll worry. They have a strategy, they have gamed it out, and they are sticking to it so far. So has Obama and his crowd, to their credit and skill. I’d say the campaign skills are roughly equal, unlike 2008.
Save some unforeseen geopolitical event to fluid to predict, I believe this entire Presidential election will hang on about the first 45 minutes of the first Presidential debate.
Obama is a sitting duck. There are at least a hundred posters on this very board that could rattle of ten facts complete with the 2008 promise, the history, and the record that Obama has no answer for – this very minute, you can guarantee Obama’s boot licking media is preparing him to spin every one of them. And we know the spin. Let’s be one step ahead.
If I could give Mitt Romney a few bits of advice it would be this. Don’t be plastic – be yourself. A nice smile to start, a handshake, then the gloves come off. Don’t be afraid to make Obama look bad – McCain made that mistake.
You’re a nice man and you come across that way, contrary to what all these hand wringing cowards like Peggy Noonan tell us – she’s the one that is plastic and a fraud. Forget trying to look Presidential, look professional. Come armed with the facts – know them in your sleep willing and able to rattle them off – and you’re good at that and the Republican debates proved it.
But above all else this – don’t let the SOB dance; go on the offensive from the very first sentence. Make your argument apply to the personal life. $16 trillion in debt – tell the family of four what they just inherited, courtesy of The One. And when you nail him, go to the next point. Systematically destroy his arguments, never taking the foot off the pedal. This entire election is a referendum on Obama – frame the debate around that.
Obama talks a smooth game – but he’s shallow and one dimensional. More than that, Obama can be rattled. Rattle him. Remind people Obama had an entire year where he didn’t need on Republican to fix all of our problems. Remind people Obama set the priorities and everyone of them have failed miserably.
Good advice, Tex. Hope he’s paying attention.
Romney should just sit back and relax until the election, since Obama insists on shoving his foot in his mouth every time he speaks, these days. Romney’s PAC’s will do all the work.
And if Romney tells the Democrat Propaganda Department (MSM) to go pound sand, they’ll have no ammunition to attack him with.
Smooth sailing.
Obama can’t fix Washington, (or anything else for that matter), PERIOD.
I still don’t believe that things are as bad for Romney as so many say they are. It’s been pointed out a million times already but it’s worth repeating: Reagan appeared almost to the end of the 1980 election that he would lose to Carter, and we know how that turned out.
I think there are many millions of voters out there who loathe Obama and who are not on anybody’s radar screen. They don’t respond to pollsters, and if they do, they may offer tepid support for the One because you don’t know who you’re talking to, and better to be safe than sorry.
The idea by the media might be to show things close or Romney losing to keep Romney’s turnout down, but that’s a pipe dream. Our side will turn out big. In a way, it’s a blessing that Romney isn’t up by eight. I think he’ll win by amount that number.
A few things are wrong with your observation: President Obama is not Carter. Mitt Romney is not Reagan. This is not 1980. The demographics are like comparing apples and oranges. The percentage of the white vote is much, much lower.
Every once in a while, CW tells us what he is really thinking. Notice that 31. made no reference to race in calculating the vote. Yet CW jumps in and fires one off about the decreasing percentage of white voters.
CW, are you suggesting that all blacks vote for O and all whites vote against O? What a disgustingly racist thing to suggest! Shame on you, Cynical Wonder!
Weeks before the election, Reagan trailed Carter in most polls. In the Gallup poll on October 26, Jimmy Carter was at 47 percent and Ronald Reagan at 39 percent.[7] Following his sole debate with President Carter on October 29, Reagan overcame the largest deficit since Gallup polling began in 1936,
from wikipedia
But wolf smile Obama is no Jimmy Carter and the 3debates feel like the war of the worlds I hope exciting to look forward to
See my comment above. The comparison you draw is meaningless and baseless.
To keep riffing on my comments above, and to expand on 29 above:
The strategy is clear, and Romney and his team have somewhat telegraphed it from the way they did the primaries.
(1) This isn’t the 2008 McCain campaign. These guys are pros and a lot more vicious. They also are a lot smarter. They have this gamed out. Their plan in a nutshell appears to be an October onslaught timed with the first debate. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for error, but it is what it is. Money has been saved for that purpose, and not frittered away over a 4 month period.
(2) It never is easy to dump an incumbent, no matter how incompetent and over his head he appears to be. But that’s the whole point. People think O is a nice guy with good intentions (not true in reality–he’s a Hyde Park intellectual snob with a strong suspicious streak in him, but that’s for another post), but he’s in over his head.
(3) Things may or may not be getting better for us, they think, but this guy Obama doesn’t seem too in control. With things so precarious in our economy and now in the Middle East, can we really count on him to get it done? The tag line: he’s not what he appeared to be. He’s human, after all, and we have to judge him as one. He’s young, he’s multiracial, he speaks well, he seems to have good intentions, but he’s just not all that competent or engaged. Do not underestimate the power of that message–it is the trump card.
(4) The Obama strategy is also clear. Fire up your base and get them to vote as early as possible before the first or second week of October. Spend as much of your money as you can making this happen, because that’s your only chance. Head to head, your guy is going to look bad, or at best neutral, to the great majority of undecided voters in the first debate, no matter how it is reported. They know what the Romney guys know about O, and they know what people think. If I were them, that would be my strategy: go for broke to try to win it by October 3rd, because after that, it’s all downhill. Try to make this as much as they can about Romney before the voters really take a hard look at Obama in the month before November 6th. Build as big a lead as you can, and get out as many early voters as you can.
(4) If O was an incumbent on the way to a victory, his approvals would be in the mid-low 50′s, and his polling would also be there in the national as well as the swing state polls. It’s not. That is a very telling weakness. Even Carter was in the 50s in late Sept 1980. That is the key–people are ready to dump Obama, they just need a reason why.
(5) A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why just getting up on the same stage as O, radiating some degree of command and competence with the facts, and appearing as compassionate as he is in real life, will get Romney a 4-5 point bounce.
(6) This will be followed by a firestorm of intensely negative ads, with one or two saved bombshells (perhaps the Occidental records or something else) thrown in on a weekly basis. It’s really a shame, but the MJ video gave the R campaign more leeway for this kind of stuff.
(7) The polls will be very close up until about 11/2 or so. The undecideds will then break to the challenger, if the strategy plays out the way it has been gamed.
We’ll see.
33. Interested Party :
“The undecideds will then break to the challenger, if the strategy plays out the way it has been gamed” That is my worst fear! That the MSM will turn the election into American Idol.
For those who consider this article doom-and-gloom concern-trolling, let me repeat that Romney can win and this election will depend on turnout. Romney’s campaign has actually been pretty good so far, but Obama has some built-in advantages, chief among them a press that is in his pocket and a talent for personal attack.
So turnout is key: get out there and vote in November, and convince everyone you know who wants to defeat Obama to do likewise.
I just don’t get all of the eyeores these days. I have numerous friends, family, and co-workers that have buyer’s remorse about voting Obama, but not a single McCain/Palin voter that now supports Obama. This over polling of (D)’s is intentional to discourage us. Just.Stop.It.
2000: the Bush drunk driving records in mid October.
2004: the Dan Rather National Guard fiasco in mid-October.
2008: nothing needed, since the economic uncertainty doomed McCain, and women (who are a lot meaner then men when it comes to another woman-sorry ladies) did not like Palin.
2012: the Republicans are itching for payback. What will it be? The Occidental Records, which show O receiving foreign exchange student scholarships? Or something else? Whatever it is, it will dominate the last two weeks of the campaign.
PS to the doom and bloomers: if they were so confident of an O win, why is Peggy Pritzker buying real estate in HI?
Highlighting Romney’s strengths and stop talking about his weaknesses would be very good for all of us to do if we don’t want 4 more years of Obama. But if you want to undermine Romney, follow Bill Kristol’s lead.
Clarence Thomas is proof that a very determined MSM does not always get its way. If any group’s approval suffered this past week, it was the media’s.
Set everything on fire and watch the world burn.
Is that what Mitt Romney is supposed to do? If he sits back and plays the debates safe or goes for the jugular either way the world is on fire literally. America is in crisis in all areas and could ignite into a fiery mess like the rest of the world. Of OWS had their way that is exactly what would happen along with othe left wing radicals. Yet we aren’t.
America isn’t on fire. We are waiting as we have hunkered down in the storm. We secure food for our families. If it is from the government so be it. After food we look for opprotunities where we can find them. So far they are outside the labor force.
The system our parents and their parents established as the American dream has collaped. It was exploited and used for political advantage in the 90′s. It is gone now.
So what is there if that “dream” is gone?
It is the American dream that has always been there. Small business.
Independent americans fighting, struggling with their labor individually to forge a future free of dependency. It is the hardest road to take, but what choice do we have?
The corporations collapsed during the housing crisis and were propped up by politicians from the bail-out that was a failure. There is only on avenue left which Barack Obama is trying to shut down or believes if you squeeze through you should be made to pay for those coming up behind you as he told Joe the plumber.
I have left the labor force, I feed my family with government assistance, but I labor to set us free by the only means I can, Enterprise.
I will succeed and will remain persistant, because I am an American no matter who is elected President.
I hope it is Mitt Romney becuase as a business person who has been where I am he will understand what is needed to free me to do what I need to do for myself and my family.
God bless the United States of America and God bless Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan!
Reportedly–but, of course, given that it is the MSM doing the “reporting,” you can never be sure if such reports are really complete, accurate, or whether they have been manipulated to give the desired results–it is apparently true that around 95% of blacks last time, by some reports a reduced, estimated 75% or thereabouts likely this time) will vote for Obama solely because of his “blackness,” just as a large majority of Jews (reportedly almost 90 odd percent last time, likely several points lower this time) will vote for Obama because they view him as a “Liberal,” that many millions of, by some estimates, the 23 million or so illegal aliens in the U.S. will vote for Obama in the hope of further easing of U.S. immigration laws and enforcement, and that many more millions of those receiving government hand-outs—in a nation with 50 million on food stamps, 100 million receiving some form of government aid, and 47% of citizens paying no State or Federal taxes– will vote for him, to shortsightedly keep the gravy coming.
As we slide ever closer to the edge of the pit and towards Socialism/Communism, the question is–are there enough millions of people who see Obama for what he is, and see and realize what a disaster he and his policies have been for the U.S., people who want to be self-reliant, independent and free, people who love the traditional America, and who reject the ever-growing power and intrusiveness of government and our nascent Tyranny, and who have the education and wit to see that this road leads to utter disaster and to the end of the U.S. as we know it—people in sufficient millions to outnumber those in the Obama camp, people who will come out and vote for Romney and prevail.
Dear author:
All true signs are in favor of Romney & Ryan. Why, please tell me, why must you persist in advancing these cowardly statements; fearful whines; and visions of failure? I KNOW I am not alone in my optimism; my faith in America and my trust in the INNATE GOODNESS AND ULTIMATE GOOD JUDGMENT of my fellow Americans.
The perversity of the Media Whores, the Presstitutes is unquestionable–they cannot be redeemed. Will you not allow yourself to see, and PASS ALONG, a more joyful (even RESOLUTE) view of our future happiness? Try this on for size–you could do better. Be assured, I am not asking for wild hopes–JUST SEARCH, DILIGENTLY, THROUGHOUT OUR “CYBER SPACE”; sifting truth from inansanity; learning insightful and critial thinking; and making informed judgments based upon honest facts from honorable commentators.
“ROMNEY FOR THE REPUBLIC”
In my soul I’ve seen the triumph,
I once thought could ever come,
To dispel the clouds of fraud and fear,
Spread like sewage by false MEDIA’s son.
The Pretender was truly their bastard child,
Conceived by the lies they’d spun.
Those with eyes to see and ears to hear,
Pierced the veil false MEDIA made.
As it hid the past and distorted the present,
Of its child who worshipped the shade,
Of the enemies of honor and truth,
And the evil plans they had laid.
Rejoice my soul! Sing out my heart!
A true champion has appeared!
His honor has never been sold for lucre,
And his faith will not bow to fear—
But I now deeply bow in thanks,
That our pleas kind Heaven would hear.
Blessed with a wealth he made himself,
He can neither be bought nor bribed.
His sons and daughters burst with vigor,
And a true lady stands at his side,
Tempered by sorrows and service,
They will fight evil’s vicious tide.
With our Champion and Lady I call to you,
My friends and brothers in need.
Be not dismayed at the scope of our task,
Heed not the temptation of greed.
FOR WE SHALL SOON SEE a renewed Freedom Tree,
Though our bodies and spirits may bleed.
Poet’s Notes:
* I could provide, if time allowed FACTS AND SOURCES to support these joyful claims. E.g. Romney donated his entire inheritance to charity http://www.forbes.com/sites/ed…
If a foolish old fart from a California desert can look out through the wizardry of computer communications and find GOOD CAUSE for optimism, cannot younger, more vital, and wiser souls improve upon my silly verse?
The link to Forbes re: Romney’s charitable contributions is broken. My understanding is that most of it went to his church. In 1843, Joseph Smith Jr. prophesied that one day the constitution would be hanging by a thread and a Mormon would appear to save the country. Do you believe this? If you do, it would seem that Mitt got his money’s worth from his ‘charitable donations’. My question to you is, “How much political legwork did his contributions buy?”
Here is a link that works:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_horse_prophecy
Hate to sound like a birthed or any of that, but I did a little internet snooping (wasn’t too hard).
There’s a lot written about Obama and his college years.
He comes across as a smart, liberal, intellectually curious guy who was somewhat of a player with the ladies. He also appears to do pretty well in class. Pretty typical, nothing too bad–for those of us who grew up in that time, we all knew someone like him in college. So why not let everyone see his college records? They could only show good stuff, right? As a politician, you want good stuff to come out, and any negative stuff to be hidden, right?
Occidental College for many years accepts a few dozen international scholarship students. In fact, if you go on their website, you can see the current application. Indeed, on this application, you need to show your student visa.
Despite all of the debunking about “crazy birthers” being “idiots” on the internet and elsewhere, wouldn’t it be very easy to simply show the records? They should show that he was born in Hawaii, and was there on standard scholarships, correct? What is wrong with that?
In the middle of all of the glowing stories about Obama, someone inadvertently said this about him at Occidental:
“Barbara Thummalapally, Girlfriend (and later wife) of Former Roommate
The couple often get asked what Obama was like in college. Easy. He was Barry, the mellow guy in the leather jacket, dragging on a cigarette.
“The leather jacket he wore for years. The leather jacket, that’s exactly him,” Barbara says. “He would be sitting there smoking quite a bit in those days.”
Their close-knit circle of international students hardly rated as party animals. “There were about six of us. We’d go to Venice Beach to see all the crazy people. We’d have all these great political discussions about whatever the latest thing was.”
Having a good time didn’t interfere with Obama’s academics. “It was so typical that he could just go and type out this amazing paper and do well after having partied all night, having drinks, beer or whatever we do at college,” she says.
Obama sometimes drove her to class. “He’d sit there low in his seat, he played cool music.”
Obama is being described by a contemporary as part of a “close-knit circle of international students.” Why?
It is clear that something is being hidden here. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are only three possibilities:
(1) Obama was there on a scholarship as an American citizen, and simply hung out with the six international students on campus because he felt more at home;
(2) Obama was there on a foreign exchange scholarship as an American citizen, having lied about being born elsewhere (like Fauxcahautas in MA right now, but with more serious consequences of fraud, since money is involved);
(3) Obama really was a foreign exchange student, there on a foreign exchange scholarship. That would provoke a constitutional crisis, wouldn’t it, since he was at some point a foreign citizen? Even though the Occidental records can be hidden, student visa records are not, especially to ranking members of Congress, correct?
I’m not sure it’s number one, but aren’t these questions serious enough to be put front and center? I sound like a tinfoil hat, but this isn’t looking good, and could be answered fairly easily, couldn’t it?
Why not release the records and answer this once and for all?
Like stains on a dress, visa records cannot be faked or lost. Perhaps someone does have them, waiting for the right time to release them.
He has hidden virtually all of his records because the needle(s) are effectively hidden in a very large haystack.
It may very well be that he claimed to be a foreign student at Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard…but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
The smoking gun could be something completely different.
It wouldn’t surpise me one bit if he doesn’t realize his Harvard transcripts 2 days before the election, and they are clean a whistle….thus PROVING “again” that the birthers are nuts.
Interesting article. Much of it is quite true and concurs with many of my arguments all along. The GOP simply failed to produce a competitive candidate. It reminds me somewhat of the John Kerry campaign. I didn’t think he was the best candidate but at the time, I also thought that Bush would lose to a tree stump running against him. I was obviously wrong. So I can’t help but wonder if the GOP underestimated Obama’s chances of winning as well. It’s as if they don’t have to sell their policies as good for the people as they can simply sell how bad the other guy’s policies are.
I also agree that people are generally ignorant of politics as they tend to focus on less important issues like earning a living, raising a family, paying the bills and such. I’d be willing to wager that 70% can’t name the 3 branches of government while 50% can’t name the vice president. And while the less informed are easily sold on rhetoric and sound bites on small ticket items, when it comes to bigger sales, practically in this economic environment at a time of such uncertainty, they seem to dig a little deeper for the best deal. And when you look past all the bells and whistles, Mitt just isn’t that good of a deal.
Now I realize that this will rile a good many as this is a conservative blog but at the end of the poker game, you display the cards and they speak for themselves. While there’s compelling arguments, Bush took the seat when things looked well. When he left, the economy was in free-fall. Now we can do the blame thing but it doesn’t change how people view the Clinton years as great, the Bush years as an abject failure, and the Obama years as slowly picking up the pieces.
But I think what people are realizing is the GOP’s shortcomings of the past 4 years. While Obama has made a slow job recovery, Republicans have fought him tooth and nail on every front. And I could go into a long winded detailed list but the GOP has reversed policies in order to obstruct any job recovery while admitting it was to insure Obama to be a 1 term President. They’ve failed to produce any job legislation while impeding any and all job bills from Obama. They restricted growth in the public sector, a place where many of these uneducated voters depend on. I mean, could you blame a postman for voting Democrat? And he/she likely isn’t one of those 47% deadbeats. But it gets worse. People who work and pay taxes really aren’t excited about seeing billionaires and multibillion $ corporations paying negative to near zero taxes with a promise of making them even lower. But it gets worse than that. Voters really don’t like to get hit in their wallets and when you look at the Ryan budget, it hits them squarely with a promise of Medicare vouchers, turning SS over to Wall Street, increasing their taxes, cutting safety nets should they lose their jobs (which is something they’re looking at), and ending Pell grants (you see, voters seem to be rather partial to their children too). And it doesn’t really address or correct our debt.
So we can slice and dice this many ways and sure, there are discrepancies in my post I’m sure you can argue. But the GOP has failed to produce a competitive candidate while pushing an agenda that’s unpopular with voters while warming up to their wealthy campaign contributors. And they did this while totally disregarding real economic issues that are important to voters, only to play a bashing game towards the Obama administration. It’s as if as long as they can sell how bad Obama is, they can be as terrible as they want to and nobody will notice. They’re noticing.
One little, tiny part of your narrative that you tend to forget, poster 42:
From 1/09 to 1/11, Obama had the presidency, a Democrat majority in Congress, and 59-60 Democrat seats in the Senate. So what choices did he make with this opportunity, in the midst of a severe economic crisis?
Obamacare and the Stimulus.
Both remain deeply unpopular–do you see him or any Democrat running on them? Do you see any but the most partisan of commentators discussing them.
Obama had the clearest movement and political ease in a generation to help us weather the economic storm. He choose his pet project instead, and by his own words, he should be a one-termer if the stimulus failed (which it apparently did).
He failed, and it had nothing to to with Republicans. He now must pay the price for his failure. Repubilicans, starting with the debate October 3rd, are going to slam him full force with the consequences of his decisions.
Time to pay the piper, unfortunately. Only thing left is to hope for a large turnout in early voting before October 3rd.
For starters, a 59 seat Senate majority means nothing as it takes 60 seats to overcome a filibuster. The Dems held 60 seats from mid Sep to mid Feb or 72 days of work.
I wouldn’t bank on ACA or the stimulus as being that unpopular. Given Mitt’s position, we already know 47% like it, right? And you have to consider the many out there with under 26 yr old children, existing medical conditions, and situations that would prevent them from acquiring insurance any other way. And like most people in most areas that don’t have a dog in that fight (or it really doesn’t affect them as they’re already insured), they really don’t give a crap. Seriously! And while you want to talk down the stimulus, well, it worked. The auto industry is back on its feet. And that’s something that people are seeing more so than not. There’s no evidence that it would have picked up on its own. So I’m not sure what your argument is. And yet, in your finger pointing at Obama, there’s still the reality that the GOP not only offered nothing but did everything possible to restrict any recovery.
Even from your rebuttal there’s not in iota of credence on any GOP issue. There’s not 1 policy that can point to them as credible leaders. All you can do is bash Obama, My point was that people simply aren’t buying it and it’s all you have to sell.
Lordy lordy, we have a live one here.
Certainly, everything worked! Why, because we like you!
Hey Ron, go buy some GM shares. And put your mouth where your money is.
It is really quite simple. The U.S. government has a spending problem. It is addicted to spending money. It spends more money than it collects. If the government were an individual citizen, the credit cards would have been shredded long, long ago. The first step toward financial responsibility is to impose self-restraint. You simply have to stop spending money on all non-essential items. You have to say no to yourself. You have to change your lifestyle.
Conservatives, with Romney as their current champion, are the ones saying, “No. No more. The out of control spending must stop now. Do the right thing. It’s gonna hurt, but you have to make sacrifices in order to fix the financial mess you have made for yourself.”
Liberals, with Obama as their leader, are the ones saying, “La la la la. If we just don’t think about it, we won’t have to worry if we run the bill up a bit higher. Just do what feels good. Someone else will fix the mess we have made for ourselves.”
Vote for Obama if you value selfish gain over moral responsibility.
Hell, Chuck U. Schumer can’t name the three branches of government. A country that puts Obama, Reid and Pelosi in leadership positions has lost its marbles.
Such concern… such wonderful, wonderful, heartfelt Micro Targeting concern.
“They restricted growth in the public sector, a place where many of these uneducated voters depend on.”
So in other words, you pay off (for now) those holding you hostage with endless money from the very people whose labor supports the public sector. And you get to President in the deal. Then past it on into the future. How nice! Sounds like Greek Nightmare.
Appease me now, but I will want more.
hey, I’m no Romney fan. Exactly the opposite as a matter of fact.
By even with that, I don’t believe the disinformation put out by the msm like this witless writer believes.
There are too many clueless observations to even begin to itemize them. It would take an article ten times as long as hers.
But to cite one, why on earth does she beleive that whites will be reluctant to abandon the little king? All of the evidence is that whites will abandon him in droves. A more correct observation would be to speculate how many fewer black will vote this time, and how many of the ones who do vote will peel off from their brainless support for a thug who has done nothing for them except lie his ass off pretending that he will.
The GOP candidate is swimming upstream against an incumbent who presses his advantages to the fullest.
Get off this theme. Please, s’il vous plaît, je vous en prie.
Pressing advantages equals…
every candid statement Romney makes is taken to the bank by Obama cretins and surrogates and magnified ad nauseam, since they haven’t got anything positive to say about their guy.
Ok, now I’ll calm down (slightly) and read your article.
This really isn’t a debate over who did or did not win the last yakking point, despite a desperate mainstream media pretending to get their panties in a wad over Romney’s (accurate) 47% observation.
Barack Obama is supremely unqualified to lead this country, both personally and ideologically.
A pet rock would be a better president.
It is really no more complicated than that, but we’re surrounded by dumb.
Polls are blowing more smoke than a worn out locomotive.
Here’s proof that the polls are full of crap:
http://www.dickmorris.com/why-the-polls-under-state-romney-vote/
Someone actually referrencing Hannity’s side kick Dick Morris as a credible source made me chuckle.
It kinda reminds me of the Clinton/Dole/Perot debates when Ross would end each rebutall with an “and that’s why we’re gonna win in every state”.
Mr. Ward;
As a man who has worked in the trenches of Washington for as long as he has, and for both Parties, Morris is very up to speed, and he’s not a media whore.
Got someone to match? Put him up.
Y’all make sure you let us know how much you enjoy November 7th; Y’hear?
Whiners and defeatists like you are totally worthless. Completely and utterly. For our side that is.
You are great for the other side.
It’s D-Day and you are criticizing the kids on the beach and telling them they have no chance against the gunners.
A disgrace.
“Despite the fact that she (Hillary Clinton) was no political neophyte, Obama mowed her over and she hardly knew what hit her. Flailing around to find an effective way to counter-attack Obama, she came up empty…”
Jean:
I would like to posit a theory that might explain Hillary’s fate in the 2008 Democratic primaries and why the Main Stream Media refused then – and refuses now – to vet Obama and hold him responsible for the decline of America.
What I offer is speculation, but as a former journalist, I think it is INFORMED speculation based on circumstantial evidence. In the run-up to the 2008 democratic nomination, Obama, like all Presidential candidates usually do, made a series of visits to the editorial boards of the major news organizations of the MSM. Typically the candidate is ushered into a conference room to face a panel composed of the managing editor, the city editor, the political editor and perhaps, the beat reporter covering politics. In the case of a visit by a Presidential candidate, it is likely that the panel would also include the publisher. Often, the meeting will be taped so that if the organization chooses to endorse the candidate, the editorial writer will have access to the actual candidate’s words.
It is my belief that during those visits, Obama made a secret pledge to selected news organizations. I suspect he pointedly promised that if elected to two terms of office, he would issue an executive order during his second term that would use tax dollars to bail out the news organizations that supported him. To justify such a use of public funds, he would argue that representative democracy depends on a healthy Fourth Estate. Besides, the news industry is just “too big to fail.”
To this day, rumors occasionally surface about the taped L.A. Times editorial session with Obama. The Times has repeatedly refused to allow that tape to be played in public. What is on that tape that is so bad that it is kept behind lock and key? Could it be that they’ve entered into a Faustian bargain with the President?
The beauty of a promise such as I suggest was offered is that once made, Obama wouldn’t have to birddog the subsequent coverage. The news organization, itself, would assure favorable treatment. Its financial future is at stake.
Besides, the editorial side of most news organizations has historically resented the fact that their livelihood is dependent upon the organization’s advertising side. As good liberals, the news side of these organizations hate the fact they depend upon free market capitalism for their paychecks.
It is no secret that the MSM is in financial straits. For example, Newsweek magazine, once a pillar of American journalism, was recently sold for just one dollar. The New York Times, like most MSM newspapers, is witnessing a severe slump in subscriptions, readership and advertising revenues. A recent poll showed that 60-percent of Americans no longer trust the veracity of the MSM.
With numbers like this, one would think that the MSM would reexamine itself and take a lesson from those few news organizations that are still thriving – the Wall Street Journal, the Fox News Network, and the Weekly Standard – and change their editorial policies by offering a more balanced news coverage. One would think that by covering the news from a hard-left angle, the MSM would realize it is writing off more than half the American population who self-identify as “conservatives.” One would think.
But instead, the MSM is doubling down in its “slobbering support” of Obama and his socialist policies. What would explain this curious refusal to adapt itself to the realities of today’s world? Self-preservation would seem to demand it.
Now there are those who believe that the MSM is simply doing what it has done for the past four decades by always taking the liberal viewpoint when covering the events of the day. Reporters, editors, broadcasters are liberals and they view the world from that perspective. This is certainly true. All surveys of news people show a very strong bias to liberalism. I certainly found this to be true when I was toiling in the vineyards of journalism. But this inherent bias doesn’t explain the media’s steadfast refusal to adapt in the face of extinction.
It is my suspicion that they’ve been offered a bribe. Get me to a second term and I’ll make sure financial troubles will be over.
Impossible, you might ask? The media would never allow itself to be bribed? Well, maybe. I was dumbfounded when the “JournaList” was first exposed. How could people calling themselves “journalists” conspire and shape news coverage that would help elect one candidate over another? How did they look themselves in the mirror? They broke every cannon of good journalism. And despite the public outcry once they were exposed, no one was fired. No one was even disciplined.
Where were the editors? Why didn’t they perform even their most basic duty to assure that news is reported, not shaped? When I was a reporter, my editors were not shy at correcting me when they thought there was too much Dave Smith in my coverage, and not enough real news.
Now consider what happened to Hillary. Going into the 2008 run, Hillary was everyone’s pick for the Democratic candidate. She was the Democrat’s shining star. Then, as Jean notes above, she was flattened by the Mack Truck called Obama. Almost overnight, the media turned and she was thrown under the Obama bus.
Was Obama’s performance really that much better than Hillary’s? Or is there something else at play? I think there is.
So;
In your extensive experience; Ever hear of “racism”?
I’ve heard of it – forever without end = from the Left.
Have never seen it. I’m told it’s out there. I’m to believe it’s everywhere.
Never seen it. Except for the reverse kind.
It’s a lie the Left has been telling for about 30 years now. They use it to great advantage destroying America = not to mention the Black Family.
They’ve tried to use their trump card so much, it no longer trumps anything.
When some leftest insinuates that I’m a racist for disagreeing with him, or with the effects of applied liberalism, I don’t even bother getting annoyed anymore.
I just yawn & inform him, objectively, that he’s lost the argument, & his retreat into racial slander is both unbecoming & pathetic.
There is no reasoning with leftests, when they see no benefit in employing reason in the first place. Using reason only weakens their arguments.
As I used to tell my children when they were young’uns: anyone who’s foolish enough to argue with a fool ^is^ a fool.
Well, another Gomer Pyle moment. Mitty is turning out to be the uninspiring flubber mouthed kitty. Shocking isn’t it. Those awake in 2004 may recall someone engineering Jack Ryan to withdraw from a Senate race somewhere. The same year someone gave “the speech”, some say the best keynote speech “evah”, at some party’s convention. And all the MSM salivating over him until the next convention.
Let me count the ways — 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and “Shazam!” the Romneyites discover Obama is, well, different. You do realize, don’t you, that after McCain’s loss, the GOP has had bunches of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and YEARS to reach “clarity” on Obama.
Do the same thing with Mitt but start with 2007 when he started running for President against McCain. Here stands Mitt and the GOP, scratching their collective heads wondering how on Earth can any one ever be able to beat Obama since all who voted for him suffer Stockholm syndrome? Simply put, the mitt I use to wash my car is more inspiring than the Mitt the Obama’s are using to win their second vacation at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., DC. Someone call John Stossel. Maybe he can get through to the GOP.
Good grief.
Obama is a pathetic excuse for a leader. Let’s count a few of the ways.
Obamacare instead of focus on the economy with a 60 seat majority in the Senate?
Stimulus supposed to reduce unemployment to 6.5% by now?
Rejection of Simpson-Bowles, with no alternative?
Unable to take an $800 billion tax increase compromise, trashing it because the clown wanted $1.2 trillion?
Suck up to the Arabs and trash Israel, and now Al Qaeda kills a US Ambassador on 9-11?
Trash the Keystone pipeline, so now Canada is dealing with China instead of us?
Need more?
Tag line coming: he isn’t what he appeared to be.
He’s just another pol. In fact, since he has no desire or skill at being a pol, he’s even worse. Both sides of the aisle despise him, but the D’s want to win so bad they’ll tolerate him.
Clinton nailed him–he’s an amateur.
With a record like this, your car wash mitt could beat this turkey.
Americans like Honey Boo Boo, but at the end of the day we are not that dumb. We’ll do the right thing in the end.
But Cedarhill’s point, which I think is mostly valid, & Gene’s point in this piece, is that Obama’s spectacular failures as President are irrelevant to his chances for reelection. If Romney lets them be.
I’m sorry. You can’t beat something with nothing.
Unless Mitt Romney finds a vision to put before the American people, an affirmative reason to vote FOR him, he’ll be run over by the Mack Truck cult-of-personality that is Barack Obama. Who has the aid of all his slobbering sycophants in the MSM, who, God help us, are now dictating the course of this election.
Because Romney’s letting them get away with it.
If he can’t find it within himself to stop playing defense, & advance his vision vigorously, & unapologetically, & force the electorate to hold Obama accountable for his hideous real-world failures, Romney will loose in exactly the same way John McCain did. For the same reasons.
Fear & timidity.
But I doubt even John Stossel will be able to get through to him.
Patience. I know it’s hard, but patience.
Romney’s guys have a strategy. High risk, but a strategy nonetheless. The plan, from reading between the lines, it to slam Obama with everything they have right before the debates (say, around 10/1), and continue it full throttle throughout October.
Pure, unadulterated negativity from ads and surrogates (O certainly has given them lots of material) with Romney appearing Presidential during the debates with a sorrowful, scornful glance at Obama (you’re just not up to the job, buddy) with a positive vision of a great American future from Mitt (and Paul) themselves.
McCain and his campaign, idiots that they were, were behind the eight ball with the economic collapse, but (1) took public financing, and (2) had no clue about ground game and early voting. They had basically no money left in October, and got appropriately slammed.
Call Romney whatever you want, but these guys never make the same mistake. Don’t you think they looked at the past 2-3 elections and gamed out the strategy? Do they look like they are panicking? Look how they ran the primaries–a machine that ran over Newt and Rick pretty easily. They know what they are doing.
The strategy is high risk, but it’s not easy to beat an incumbent, especially the first black president in American history. However, Obama’s complete lack of control or skill as president is enough for majorities of people in the swing states (the only ones that count right now) to give him the boot.
The head to heads are tied, and O is in Wisconsin in September. O has not cracked 50%, let alone 48% anywhere despite a 4-1 ad advantage. O’s campaign chief was on the news today telling Dems not to worry about the head to head polls. Does that sound like a campaign that’s way ahead?
Patience.
The polls are not tied. The polls are tied if you pick the one that supports what you already want to believe, and there’s plenty to go around for that regardless of what candidate you support. I find the best way to get an accurate picture of where the election stands is by looking at poll composites. Realclearpolitics.com is one of the few that do this and they have been very reliable. They include all of them, both the conservative (i.e. rasmussen), and the progressive. In their composite President Obama has been ahead all year by varying degrees. Romney has not been ahead at all, not even once. Right now Obama is up by about 3.5.
The swing states look much better for the president (again, see realclearpolitics). Pennsylvania, Michigan, and yes, Ohio appear to be gone for Romney and have been for some time. Intrade has the President with a 71% chance of reelection and Romney at 29%. Granted they are not a scientific poll, just people betting. However, they are rarely wrong. It is no wonder, after bragging about his fundraising prowess, Romney is scrambling for cash. People are beginning to see the reality of his chances and are beginning to direct resources to the down-ticket races. Romney will be lucky if he clears 220 electoral votes.
C. Blunder, what’s new?. How about something old. You don’t like old, do you? Why do you post with multiple IDs on PJM? Isn’t that dishonest? Sure. Just sit there and take it. Good! Well trained. Well…
Cynical Wonder
“That’s always a good response when the polls aren’t going the way you would like them.”
September 22, 2012 – 10:19 pm
Then Mr. President’s campaign manager chimes in –
Messina: Forget The Tied National Polls, We’re Winning. “I think you will see a tightening in the national polls going forward,” he said.
Yeah right. Don’t believe anything except what we tell you. Good job Blunder.
Well, well, Persons Galore is up late now. Hmmmm… Do parrots stay up that late?
All this action. Must be a call to The Kick Me Corpse to get going with it. Gosh, Mr. President might have to talk about his administration at some point. He might get UniVisioned again. Heaven forbid! Quick, smokescreen! Hurry! Don’t! Stop it! Don’t! Don’t ask me about Benghazi, Pakistan or Afghanistan or midnight police raids! That 8%! That’s not fair!
The “Superior” Cackling Chicken should know that the only polls that count are the campaign’s internal polls. Then again, Lenin’s children are only allowed a certain amount of intelligence.
Getting tight C. Blunder, it’s getting tighter. The blanket responses come with that old C. Blunder Whatever the Name is Today multiple appearences indicates a cesspool freakout. The number of post is directly proportional to the unease.
Flush! There, feel better?
You know, that Kick Me sign could use a steamroller to flatten it a bit. Please remember to remove “you people”? for your own safety. Can’t? Oh well. Clang!
Buuuuck, buck, buck, buck.
PJM is trying to come across as “fair and balanced”. I applaud their efforts.
The truth is;
This is a contest to see which media magnate is most powerful. It’s competition between the biggest media enterprises in America. In this respect, PJM is a puppy up against the Big Dogs.
In the end, we lose and they win; Either way.
Romney wins; Only a minor setback.
Obama wins; A major media victory.
The real war is the American citizen against the established, corrupt, media barons.
On to the bigger point made by Gene in the initial post.
O is hard to beat, even with his collosal failures of leadership and policy, that is true as was said.
In the back of everyone’s mind, however, is this nagging fact: is the guy really up to the job? Is he in over his head? He’s nice, well spoken and all, and his heart appears to be in the right place, but does he have the cojones, the sauce, the drive to get it done? Especially with the serious economic and world problems that we face?
Even your most liberal friends, the ones obsessing over Bain, think about that at night. They are so obsessed with winning at this point that they can’t see straight.
Bill Clinton (a leader, whether you liked him or not) had him pegged: he’s an amateur. Count on Blue Dress Bill to say out loud what everyone is thinking: how did we let this guy become prez? Did we really all fall for that hope and change crap?
When someone makes a really dumb mistake, pounding them over the head with it and calling them idiots just makes them resentful. They have to come to this conclusion on their own. They will, with subtle (and soon not so subtle) reinforcement, as well as O’s ineptitude (like the latest in Libya) making the decision all the more easier.
What do we want? For a dangerous Narcissist to lose power or that the electorate who put in power wake up and never let someone like that in power again? The two are not the same and I think we can agree the latter is far more important. The reason Obama was elected is due to the fact the majority of the electorate assumes that peace without sacrifice and prosperity are the natural order of things rather than a historical abnormally; an immature electorate voted on the same criteria as they vote for American Idol. A way to wreck this mindset is to let Obama win. Let him and the Dems take credit for the coming economic problems and the new terrorism. Pain is the best teacher so let the collapse come. A silly people should get what it works for.
Unfortunately, if that happens, the USA is lost. The Constitution will no longer have any meaning. El Presidente will “rule”. Congress will be a puppet. We will enter a long period of darkness that will take generations to emerge from, see Cuba.
Bob -
Anyone who votes for Obama gets exactly what they deserve. I am with you there.
The problem is that the rest of us get what they deserve too.
Not fair. Not right. Not good. Not just.
I say we defeat them and then make them suffer the pain you say is a great teacher by taking ALL of their entitlements away from them. Let them whine and cry, and starve if they choose. It’s their life.
Listening to Bryan Fisher yesterday (podcast, probably delayed) and he stated straight up that this was the last election in which we would have the demographical possibility of winning the Presidency i.e. the last time whites would be able to determine the Presidency. Disenfranchising eligible voters through legislation, squashing unions, and monopolizing the corporate money game are the only options available in the future.
Mitt Romney becomes tan around Latinos like a magical political chameleon. ELECTION 2012 posted 09/20/2012
http://www.happyplace.com/17973/mitt-romney-magically-becomes-tan-around-latinos-like-political-chameleon
You could do the exact same expose’ on Obama and his spray on skin tones.
All politicians use makeup.
And speaking of “make-up”; “Make up” some more naive, immature, prejudicial, B.S. about Romney; It’s very entertaining.
Since there is no Reagan or Lincoln running in this election, whom do you suggest?
I wouldn’t stop with the tan, bring in Charlie Crist’s hair consultant and you have a winning makeover!