Cindy Claveau

I admit I'm a little baffled, but not yet ready to push the panic button.

As the GOP primaries wound to a confused ending, I was positive that the evangelical right would be bailing when their homophobe candidate Santorum dropped out. I was sure that Romney's checkered political past would haunt him, and that his position as "just another rich white man" would disenfranchise some, if not all, of his base. Even conservative ones.

Yet he has closed the gap with Obama in the national polls. Depending on which one you read, Obama's lead is down to 2 or 3 points. In some swing states, it's a dead heat.

Romney is the best the conservatives can do and that's been obvious for a long time. But he's no Tea Partier. He's not some fiery rightwinger who can energize the base. He's actually kind of a conservative version of Al Gore -- boring, uninspiring, bland.

Then there's the impact of the Tea Party on congress -- while being in favor of smaller government and lower taxes is at least an intellectually honest position, how do you bring the government to the brink of collapse and still claim you have taxpayers' interests at heart? How do you sit in that chair vetoing anything that even remotely smells of Obama and expect to accomplish something? More troubling: How do voters not see the damage their Tea Partiers have done to Congress and our budget? How can they be so adamantly opposed to ANY new taxes, yet favor maintaining our obscenely massive military at the expense of education, highways and social services?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/op...here.html?_r=1

Have this country's politics come down to ideology over pragmatism? Do that many voters honestly think that giving the wealthiest of Americans tax breaks will create a single job? How can there not be an ultimate comeuppance for the stupidity and arrogance that's going on right now on the Right?

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Lord

What is Romney's appeal? That's simple - he's Republican and completely maleable by those who pay him.

Bard Jameson

He's not Obama

ETA: While said tongue-in-cheek, I do believe that is at least part, if not a sizable portion, of his appeal.

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Casey Pelous

uhhhhhhhhh.......

Romney != NEEEEEEEEEEGRO IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

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Cindy Claveau

And he's white.

But if Americans feel they can't relate to Obama because of his race, how do they feel they can relate to Romney - a man worth an estimated $200 million, the son of a prominent politican and corporate leader?

Still confused.

Richie Waves

His appeal is that people with lots of money, barrels of ink and a TV station like him and have enough power to manufacture appeal in the general public.

Lord

Oh. I thought he was a white-looking Mexican. Just Kidding Mr. Romney !




...I think.

Beebo Brink

But not just that. There's also a lot of free-floating fear in American culture, some of it manufactured by USA-Homeland-Nazis-fascist-wannabees, but a good chunk emanating from the weak economy. Understanding the root causes of our economic woes involves reading far too many technical articles (hell, they strain my brain too) and blaming bastions of our Capitalistic Divinity. It also requires having enough knowledge of geography to have a dim understanding of Europe's influence.

Part of being a good American is demanding a solution RIGHTNOW, and one that does not involve any pain or sacrifice or deep thought. So whoever is in the White House RIGHTNOW is responsible for life not improving.

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Ann Otoole

fucking republicans. Obama has balls and has killed off more terrorists than any stupid white man. They need to get a damn clue.

Eunoli Rain

1) He's not black.
2) He doesn't support gay marriage.
3) People are buying the argument that he (the president) caused the economic crisis because they can't remember back to Bush and they are actually stupid enough to think that removing bank regulations is better than preventing another boom/crash cycle.

Amber Guity

Not only is he NOT Obama, he's also NOT a Democrat.

The GOP is exceedingly good at manufacturing the issues that will appeal to not only the far right voters, but also the right-leaning moderates. They can make up anything they want and get people to question what the actual facts are.

And the Democrats are exceedingly good at letting the GOP do just that.

Richie Waves

I still think the republicans would be happy enough to let Obama run another four years. It does wonders for expanding their base and collecting donations, and leaves the woes of these recessionary times at the feet of the democrats.

Tess Whitcroft

His appeal is that he is the frontman in the Republican Patry's $800,000,000.00 effort to take over this country.

$800,000,000.00 will put an awful lot of lipstick on an awful lot of pigs.

Tess

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Amity Slade

The economy has been bad during Obama's 3+ years in office. Deserved or not, the president will be blamed.

Between now and the conventions, Romney is going to be at his peak popularity. He is no longer sustaining attacks from Republican primary candidates, and the general election campaigning will not really kick into gear until after the conventions.

I don't think it has much to do with race. When it comes to presidential politics, voters blame the guy in office for bad times and easily embrace the new guy as the one to fix it. (Unfortunately, voters tend not to hold their congressional representatives to the same standard as presidents.)

Loraan Fierrens

The base of the GOP is going to vote for Romney for the parallel reason that I held my nose and voted for Obama in 2008: with the country split pretty much down the middle, to not vote at all is essentially a vote for the opponent, and they're not about to stand for that.

Jura Shepherd

They would need to know who their representative actually is before they can do that ...and most don't.

Tribalism is just way easier than civics. Go team!

Cindy Claveau

Here's an interesting read on that. But of course, the NY Times is a liberal commie rag:

Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will

McPhaughan

Doesn't Obama have millions, too ($3M-$10M according to some estimates). Attended Harvard Law School, as well.

I doubt many ordinary people can relate to either candidate, financially. How many of us on this forum have a net wort of $5 million or more?

I don't think it matters all that much who wins in November -- the US will continue to slide downhill into a financial mess anyway. Maybe it's better if Obama wins, since the Democrats would get blamed for the upcoming trouble, whether they deserve it or not.

Richie Waves

Wilfully retarded. Well done on the spelling. here's a star: *

Zaida Gearbox

He's not Barack Obama.

Romney has all the personality of a fence post.

Cincia Singh

What the GOP has been good at is preventing any legislation from passing Congress that would make the economy improve and instead passing bill after bill that obfuscates their true intention. The silver-spooned,homophobic bigots in Congress are willing to toss the USA's economy in the crapper to get that gay-loving, black (I avoided the "N" word but I'm pretty sure in private they wouldn't), politically moderate Democrat out of the White House. The sad thing for them is by the time the election is over it may be too late to save the economy before the next election cycle given the Democrats will do the same thing to Romney if he wins.

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Cindy Claveau

Obama's assets valued at between $2.6 million and $8.3 million

I'd say there was a difference between someone making money from book sales and someone who inherited millions, then made even more money as a corporate looter, putting thousands of people out of jobs.

Amity Slade

One of the reasons the Republican primary field was so lousy is that some charismatic Republicans will real presidential politics are probably waiting for better economic times before pursuing the White House. Christie, Rubio, even Jeb Bush probably could have trounced the Republican primarily field easily. But had the made it to the White House this year, they would have faced the same lousy 4 years that Obama has faced.

Though I don't think any Republican strategist actually wants Obama to win this election, it probably really would serve the party's long-term interests. The Senate is probably still out of reach for Republicans this year, but doable by 2016 if the bad economy keeps up and Obama takes the blame. That sets up potential Republican control of the White House and Congress in 2016. If Romney wins and the economy continues to go bad or worse, voters will do to Romney in 2014 what they did to Obama in 2010 and favor the president's opponents in congressional elections.

Gabriell Anatra

Yes.

Well, to a lot of people stupidity and arrogance are proud and cherished traditions.

Cindy Claveau