Tagged: Mitt Romney

Posted: November 11, 2012 at 4:47 pm

Naked on the Morning After, the Real Mitt

The best reason for voting against Mitt Romney wasn’t revealed until the day after the election, when we were given a glimpse of the would-be emperor without clothes.

Romney, we learned, is a proud denizen of the Conservative Echo Chamber, the walled-in neighborhood in which tens of millions of right-wing Americans (and an increasingly scary number of Republican politicians) live their political and social lives.  They consume right-wing propaganda as if it were factual news, and live in a state of blissful ignorance, disparaging the greater national dialogue.

As was widely reported on the day after his loss, he and his team were shocked, truly stupefied in fact, when the race was called for Obama early in the evening.  Why?  They had long ago turned away from all polling except that which showed Romney to be winning.  The candidate and his gurus ignored the overwhelming majority of polls–which all showed a significant edge for Obama–and chose instead to focus on polls with an intentional conservative bias.  So even when major national predictive markets and highly regarded models, like Nate Silver or Intrade, showed Obama running away with it, Romney and his crew saw liberal bias.  They fashioned their own “unskewed” research; it explains, among other things, Romney’s crazy decision to make a last-minute frolic to Pennsylvania.  Only in his own world of Echo Chamber data did he stand an outside chance in Pennsylvania.

I find this to be utterly bizarre, particularly because we were always told that Romney was a math-oriented, data-loving guy, an abacus of a CEO who would bring his love of numbers and his cold, analytical persona to government.  Perhaps this version of Romney was one created by him or the by the press, and needs revisiting.

And, if you can believe it, Romney implied on Wednesday that he lost because Obama did not fight fairly.  In a solemn talk to staff and key financiers the morning after he got thumped, he said that Obama and the Democrats had unfairly portrayed his tenure at Bain and his position on abortion. Is this guy high?

Romney is clearly on his own planet (pardon the expression, Mormon readers).   I mean, sure, Romney was dragged through the mud, but hardly more than was Obama by Romney.  And yet Romney has convinced himself that this is not the case.  In Romney’s mind, everything he did was 100 percent earnest, factual, accurate and objective, unlike the attacks on him by his opponents which were cheap, false, distortive and unfair.  This is precisely the narrative on the Hannity show and other FOXNews entertainment, every night.  Apparently Romney watches too much of this stuff.

I suppose there were warning signs.   After all, we watched puzzled as Romney tried using a Primary message in a General election.   Well into the autumn, he was still spouting a coded, white-supremacist slogan–“take back our country”–while many observers wondered why he wasn’t moderating to the wider American audience.

It’s frightening, therefore, what might have been.  We’ve already seen what happens when a President adopts such a distorted worldview.  The eight years of George Bush were eight years of a President who appeared to live in his own world, in which, by his view, 25% percent of Americans (the 25% of America that liked him and approved of his job performance) were sane and normal, while the other 75% were crazy, nutty liberals, who bought into the liberally biased news media, and allowed themselves to be brainwashed.  We saw this from Bush himself; we saw it from people like Rumsfeld, who would take the podium and snicker at anybody who criticized the Iraq war or the administration’s handling of it (or of Afghanistan).

In the last few days of the campaign, Romney’s wife actually admitted that she was concerned that her husband’s mental state might not be able to withstand the rigors of being President.  Some bloggers jumped on the remarks, but for the most part Ann’s statements just came and went.

Yet having now seen the naked Romney, having learned that Romney is a citizen of Conservative Echo-chamber Land (perhaps Trump should investigate his birth certificate),  I would say that his wife’s psychological assessment of her husband might have merit, and that a deeper psychological problem, or tendency, might exist.  This guy can detach himself from reality when reality is not to his liking.

The most delicious part of all this, however, is what comes next.  For in Echo Chamberville, when a Republican loses, he is said to have lost because he “wasn’t conservative enough.”  So Romney is soon to be tied to a post, and flogged by his own people.

Posted: September 21, 2012 at 8:36 pm

Did Mitt Romney “Aztec”?

If you had told me, a year ago, that the 2012 presidential campaign would feature somebody wearing blackface, I might have believed you because it’s the kind of thing I can envision a Tea Partier doing.  But I’m certain I would never have predicted that the person doing it would be Mitt Romney.

As Politico reported yesterday, Mitt Romney, in his appearance on the spanish-language Univision network, appeared to have dyed his skin an extra shade of brown, or orange as it were.

Among Latinos, this is known by the slang term “aztecing” (pronounced Az-teck-ing). It’s a way to describe the make-up related actions of one who wants to artificially come across as more Latino.  Romney might believe, mistakenly, that since his father was born in Mexico, it would naturally be the case that his father’s offspring would have darker skin, at least when appearing on spanish language TV.

But from the looks of him, Romney must think that Latino people are not tan, but orange.  He needs to get out more and meet some of them.  In his Univision appearance, he looked not like a Latino, but like one of Willie Wonka’s Oompa-Loompas.

Posted: August 6, 2012 at 7:53 am

Beltway Quick Hits

Flap over Messina Meetings with Drug Lobbyists

There was a story reported in Politico and elsewhere a few days ago, that Jim Messina had been taking meetings with lobbyists at a Coffee shop in Washington DC during the negotiations over the health care legislation in 2009 and 2010, when he was deputy chief of staff to Obama (he is now campaign manager).  The focus of this revelation, in the DC press, has been on the fact that Messina was also communicating by email with these lobbyists but did not hand over these emails to Congress when they requested them.  He is also being accused of having kept the meetings secret, intentionally meeting the lobbyists at coffee shops so that there was no official record of the lobbyists visiting the White House.

The GOP is claiming he thus broke the law.  Messina says that the emails and meetings were legal, and that the emails were from his personal email account, and thus private.  Perhaps he has a point.

But setting aside that issue, what’s of interest to the Cowgirl Blog is the content of the emails.  Messina in one exchange is assuring a pharmaceutical lobbyist that the health care law will be written so that it contain billions of dollars for his clients, the drug companies.

And yet it is the GOP that is complaining about this interaction with lobbyists.  Shouldn’t progressives be the ones raising holy hell about this?

 

Reid Going After Romney?

I’m surprised that Harry Reid has started throwing stones at Romney, about his taxes.  While the issue is ripe and the criticism accurate, if I were Mitt Romney, of all the politicians in the world I’d want attacking me, Reid would be at the top of the list.  This man is the head of one of the most incompetent institutions on earth.

The United States Senate, and the Congress in general, accomplishes very little, wastes money, runs up deficits, and passes legislation that compounds problems rather than solving them.  Congress’s approval rating is around 10%.  On large issues facing the country, like energy independence and corrupt financial practices of Wall Street, Congress offers no resolution and merely punts.   So I believe the Democrats have made a strategic error in having Reid be the public critic of Mitt Romney’s tax practices.

Then again, Romney is a real sheep and a poor politician, so I doubt he’ll take advantage it.  Romney likes to play things safe, and not mix it up.

Posted: July 2, 2012 at 12:03 pm

Rehberg’s Truth Tour Slams Romney, Postal Service, Medicare

Someone just sent me the official handout from the so-called Tester Truth Tour a few days ago, and it’s a trip through crazytown.

Remember the Tester Truth Tour? It involved a handful of Dennis Rehberg’s TEA Party nuts, tinfoil hats, a fancy RV with cartoons of Jon Tester on it, some T-shirts and a whole bunch of wasted paper.  It’s the first project of Joe Balyeat, the legislative dropout who became the new Americans for Prosperity Director. The spendy Tour was billed as a “project” of Americans for Prosperity, the secretive organization run by billionaire TEA Party founders Charles and David Koch.

Apparently, Rehberg’s Americans for Prosperity doesn’t think much of Mitt Romney and his record of health care in “Massachutts” [sic].

Massachutts

Before we go on, let’s remember that Dennis Rehberg has already endorsed Romney.  I wonder how that sits with Rehberg’s Americans for Prosperity?

And check out what Rehberg’s truth brigade thinks of Medicare, Social Security, and even the Postal Service:

Failed Programs

No wonder Dennis Rehberg voted to force cuts to Medicare and cut service at Montana Post offices.  At least his people tried a little harder to spell Massachusetts.   The entire program can be downloaded here.

Posted: June 19, 2012 at 12:13 pm

When the Romney Campaign Knocks, What Will It Look Like?

I keep thinking of an incident in Whitefish in 2010, when a burly guy with long white hair, tattoos and a mullet showed up at a female voter’s house with a gun on his belt and holding a clipboard.  The woman called the police. The guy left.  It was later discovered that the guy meant no harm.  He was simply a canvasser, canvassing for the GOP.

Is this what the Romney campaign will look like when it knocks on your door? And can such a fighting force compete with the Obama legions of young and progressive volunteers?

Much is made of the Obama campaign’s famous use of technology and its massive, high tech organizing methods.  But it is all rooted in an abundance of young, enthusiastic volunteers.  They are the soldiers in the largest ground attack in the history of American politics in 2008, and though there’s plenty of talk of less enthusiasm in 2012, the fighting force, if smaller and slightly less enthusiastic, is still composed of certain basic types of people that the GOP does not have.   Sure, Obama’s troops are not exactly average Americans. They are pretty liberal, sometimes very much out there.  But they are closer to normal than Tea Party activists.  And they are numerous, energetic, easily summoned, in love with Obama, and tech savvy.

Who are the Romney soldiers?  Youths? Conservative young equivalents of Obama’s progressive soldiers?  No way.  Young voters are liberal nowadays.  No such Romney army exists.

Frighteningly, Romney’s ground game, his fighting force, will be Tea Partiers.  Older men, angry and on the fringe of society, conspiracy-theory minded, gun-wearing, Sasquatch hunters.  Can such an army win a war?

It’s a huge problem for Romney.  Even if he can find a way to motivate these citizens to walk neighborhoods for him (and it is unlikely that he can), will they be up to the task?  Will they be able to operate the handheld devices that are now required for instantaneous information upload to campaign headquarters (standard gear among progressive organizers).  Will they be able to behave appropriately at the door, and come across as at least marginally normal?  Will they provide energy? Can they transmit enthusiasm? Can they be cool?  And what such wing-nuts, who worship Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, will be able to knock on a door of a Latino voter and say, “Si, se puede!”?

That small incident in Whitefish has also played out on a much bigger stage in Montana. The Koch brothers have repeatedly failed to find a normal person, an organizer, to lead the Montana chapter of their national group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP).  The current leader, just hired, looks like a confederate general, and wrote a book about how gays, the UN, and non-christians are leading America toward an armageddon. The previous leader of AFP, had been a senior member of a cult that built a $30 million underground bunker to prepare for the end of the world, which they believed would occur on April 23, 1990.  The state Tea Party hasn’t done much better than the Kochs.    One of the many leaders they’ve cycled through was showing up to legislative hearings dressed like a biker, with a bandanna on his head, jeans and a leather jacket, and posted violent rhetoric against gays on his Facebook page.  He actually got kicked out of a local Tea Party group for being too right-wing, if you can believe it.

Compare this crew to the young women and men who have volunteered and organized in Montana for Obama. They have had graduate degrees, have worked in national organizations around the country, and possess a worldly view.

Meanwhile, Obama is plucking Silicon Valley start-up types to run the technology center of his campaign.  Few such young, talented tech wizards have any desire to be a part of a Republican Presidential campaign, and so the pool of talent is very shallow for Romney.  Even with the enthusiasm deficit that Obama is in relative to 2008, I do not believe Romney will be able to mount a ground game to compete.  Romney’s deficit is greater, a deficit of youth, of soldiers, of tech talent.  A ground war is won with soldiers, not imbeciles.

Posted: May 15, 2012 at 8:42 pm

The Jesus Factor

Montana GOP Executive Director Bowen GreenwoodBowen Greenwood, the head of the Montana GOP, emailed party faithful that he will be running as a write-in candidate for clerk of the Supreme Court this fall.

In the email, Greenwood wrote:

I am  first and foremost a follower and friend of a guy named Jesus of Nazareth. Nothing else even comes close.

Aware that his missive would be picked up and transmitted around, Greenwood clearly is keen on sending a message to the holy rollers in his party that he is One Of Them.

As this relates to the governor’s race, it’s been previously assumed that Greenwood is not a Rick Hill supporter, because of Hill’s lack of right-wing bona fides, Greenwood’s appearance in a Ken Miller video, and Greenwood’s support of Rick Santorum. I would say the email supports the notion that Greenwood likes the Miller candidacy.

And recently Miller has become more direct, himself, about highlighting his own status as “A Christian,” on his website and in debates.

Greenwood might also be worried about a religious insurrection within his party, and wants to appear to be a religious nut so that he can keep his job when the wheels come off in November. Right now the Montana GOP is run mostly by Helena insiders, but is staring at the real possibility of twelve straight years of Democratic control of the Governor’s office and 16 straight years controlling the Attorney General’s office and Land Board. If this comes true in November, there will be a Republican Revolution, but not the kind that the GOP enjoys celebrating, unless you happen to be one of the ecstatic rioting Tea Partiers holding the pitchfork that is hoisting the asses of Greenwood and Will Deschamp, the Party Chairman).

And there is another more subtle thing going on here.

Right-wingers have been led into a self-reinforcing delusion, ever since McCain lost to Obama, that if a moderate Republican candidate loses an election it’s because the candidate made the mistake of trying to appeal to independent voters. Be a true right-wing conservative and you will always win, say Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to their daily audiences of twenty million foaming, gullible ignoramuses.

This thinking allows right-wing leaders and shouters to have their cake and eat it. They can say “I told you so” if and when candidates like Mitt Romney or Rick Hill get defeated. And the purveyors of this Theory of Conservative Purity themselves become more relevant in the off-season. Their followers, meanwhile, can take solace in the fact that arch conservatism is The Way, and that Republicans can only lose elections for failing to follow The Way. This is exactly the bed that has been made for Mitt Romney, by Santorum and Gingrich, Beck and Limbaugh. When Romney loses, they’ll say its because a false conservative, not a true one, was nominated.

For a Party activist like Greenwood, this delusion has a more practical application: it sets up a good position from which to dump on a GOP candidate who loses.

It’s an easy out. For when Rick Hill loses (and he will be the nominee, and will lose to Bullock), Greenwood will signal to the base of his party, “I told you so.” This, even though Ken Miller would himself strand no real chance of winning a general election. But how could this be disproven if Miller never gets the nomination? It can’t, and that’s the beauty of it.

The entire Greenwood email is pasted below the fold.

 

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