Romney: not a NeverTrumper
Mitt Romney—‘member him?—is running for Senate from the state of Utah. Here’s his stance on supporting Trump:
One of the questions I am asked frequently on the campaign trail is whether as Senator I will support the Trump agenda…
I will support the president’s policies when I believe they are in the best interest of Utah and the nation. I have noted, the first year of his administration has exceeded my expectations; he made our corporate tax code globally competitive, worked to reduce unnecessary regulations and restored multiple use on Utah public land. In addition, I am pleased that he backed away from imposing a 35 percent tariff on all foreign goods…
But I have openly expressed my disagreement with certain of the administration decisions such as the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); I want more markets open for Utah and American goods. I also oppose broad-based tariffs, such as those proposed on steel and aluminum, particularly when they are imposed on our allies. I agree, however, with narrower penalties levied on companies or nations that employ unfair trade practices, such as China.
I have and will continue to speak out when the president says or does something which is divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions. I do not make this a daily commentary; I express contrary views only when I believe it is a matter of substantial significance.
Sounds rather reasonable to me.
Not the kind of guy I would want on my side in a bar fight, which is what seems to be coming.
Not the kind of guy I would want on my side in a bar fight, which is what seems to be coming.
Would have been a better President than O…but didn’t have the fight in him.
15 minutes is up Mitt.
I have the urge to just punch myself in the face every time i hear someone supposedly a conservative conflating Illegal Alien into legal law abiding upstanding legal Immigrants. I am a immigrant myself and I take offense to that.
Seriously, I am triggered, please don’t compare me to illegal immigrants, I came legally.
When Romney criticizes Trump’s policies, I listen because Romney knows a lot. Trump probably considers him a wimp, but he should listen too. He is a lot more informed than the fanatical Trumpsters. I do appreciate that Trump has shaken up lots of things that needed it (for me, especially calling out the European holier than thous). But I wish he would listen to people when they tell him he has gone too far. It’s not that his instincts are wrong; it’s more that he hasn’t always considered what step 2 should be. Of course, it is hard for him to give more detailed reasons for his actions because the MSM won’t report it anyway.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Which in the current climate is absolutely shocking.
So shockingly reasonable, in fact, that I expect the Never-Trumpers and Anti-Trumpers will have to find a way to discredit him—Hold on! the Democrats along with their “running dogs” (heh!) in the MSM already did that—in 2012: a real classy hatchet job, in fact…but after cutting Mitt off at the knees, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve resurrected him—that’s right—Soviet style, figuring they can get some use out of him (he’s been air-brushed back in, as it were):
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/04/forget-2012-press-embraces-mitt-romney-for-trump-detractor-in-chief.html
Nonetheless, if Romney’s quote (in the original post) is any indication, they may have—once again—backed the wrong horse.
(Shorter version: “Mitt Romney ain’t no John McCain.”)
I hope he can continue to be a strong and effective voice of reasonableness. (And I hope that’s not expecting too much….)
It’s important—it’s essential—that Trump has such people in his corner.
He just proved the MSM was right in 2012 when they said he was just like … well you get the idea.
Romney demonstrates a limited understanding of geopolitics when he argues support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership based on what’s good for business. In this, he provides a perfect example of the capitalists of whom Lenin spoke: “They will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”.
Also and note that I leave out “sexist and dishonest” but when has Trump spoke or demonstrated divisiveness, racism, an anti-immigrant attitude (illegal alien criminals are NOT immigrants) or words or actions “destructive to democratic institutions”? Me thinks ole Mitt hss been watching too much CNN & MSNBC programming…
This latest from Romney further demonstrates that he was not the right man for the Presidency. Though as a suitable replacement for Eisenhower, he’d have been fine.
GB:
He was certainly a great deal righter than Obama, and that’s who he was running against. I think he would have been a good president, actually.
I never liked Romney for the simple reason that he appears to always want to be one of the gang, a member of the club, and achieves it by being a totally conventional man. When he was our governor he implemented RomneyCare to curry favor with the libs and use it as a base for his presidential ambitions.
He’s never had the go for the throat ruthlessness that’s sometimes required in life. He ran against Teddy Kennedy for Senator and didn’t slam him for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne when he could and should have at one of their debates. The same happened against Obama in that debate where the fat reporteret was feeding lines to Obama. Rather than attacking him for the fiasco at Benghazi he started splitting hairs like a lawyer.
If he makes it to the Senate he’ll be a net negative since his desire to get along will overwhelm any deep basic principles. He’s already doing it by mouthing the usual unsubstantied DNC canards against Trump.
Not a man you want next to you in a dangerous situation.
Would he have been better than Obama, absolutely. Would he have been able or even inclined to root out the Deep State corruption and collusion, absolutely not.
neo,
In the short run, Romney was light years ahead of Obama but in the long run, Romney is just a slower march to the gallows.
As for today, if conditions were the same as they were in the 50s, I’d agree. But as things stood in 2012? I think not, he’d have been another Bush, an establishment Republican. Had he been elected, Trump would never have been elected and Romney would not have even attempted to address China or Muslim migration. He would have further enabled illegal immigration. He would have in all probability nominated at best a Roberts and quite possibly another Kennedy.
Romney’s words reveal that he still thinks bipartisanship is possible. He thinks he’s dealing with people who disagree but who still love America. They do not. They love what they think this country could be, a progressive bastion for the EU to follow… Where the Tommy Robinsons are given de facto death sentences and the neos are shut up.
The time for civility is long past, the time for dialog is past. You cannot have a civil dialog with people who repeatedly chant/scream NAZI/RACIST!!! at you… and do so while you try to respond rationally to them. As well try to coax a rabid dog into letting you pet them.
The Left is only interested in dominance as their actions demonstrate since Trump was elected. By whatever means are necessary is their mantra and liberal useful idiots are enabling mortal threats to liberty and to our very way of life.
Dave — what bugs me most about that conflation is that those who utter it (mostly the MSM) actually believe we are stupid enough to be fooled by it.
Richard,
Those that utter that conflation are not talking to us, they are talking to the 65+ Million that voted for Hillary. And, the great majority of them are indoctrinated enough to believe it.
The ‘educational’ system, the media and flooding third world, socialist illegal immigrants into the country are the means employed to increase those who swallow that conflation.
“Free Speech” is the cover for lying propaganda. Using their liberty to destroy the system that guarantees that liberty.
“What fools these mortals be!”
Romney’s another of those “principled conservatives” who would stab President Trump & the country in the back if it meant they got to go to the “cool kids'” parties. He’s another in the same mould as the Bushes, Boehner, McConnell & McCain…and the NRO & other NeverTrump pundits…globalists who will hope that they get an invite into Panem when the world they’ve given away goes to hell in a bucket.
But…Trump will likely campaign harder for Romney, if he gets out of the primaries, than Romney did for Trump in 2016…says something about the integrity of the 2 men & if I were Romney I’d be worried about that.
I don’t trust Romney. In many ways he is a fine and competent man, but I think he will sometimes tell people what he thinks they want to hear rather than his true opinion. A good politician can do that without breaking a sweat, but Romney can’t pull it off. Case in point, Anthropogenic Global Warming. When he was campaigning, Romney claimed that there was some question about the science, but it didn’t sound sincere to me. Sure enough, after he lost the election he came out as a believer. My aunt in Mass considered him an inveterate liar. Of course, she was an adamant Democrat, but she still possessed a smidgen of fairness and was willing to give Reagan his due.
I suppose thinking someone to be a lousy liar is a sort of compliment, but I don’t appreciate it. Anyway, I get to vote tomorrow, or a least turn in my ballot. We will see …
The time for civility is long past, the time for dialog is past.
People are no more accurate now than they were in the ignorance of 2008.
You lack the sources and power to see the future.
People are doing a very good job of falling for the Left’s con trap of dividing the nation into factions.
See:
another of those “principled conservatives” who would stab President Trump & the country in the back if it meant they got to go to the “cool kids’” parties.
————–
I never liked Romney for the simple reason that he appears to always want to be one of the gang, a member of the club, and achieves it by being a totally conventional man. When he was our governor he implemented RomneyCare to curry favor with the libs and use it as a base for his presidential ambitions.
He’s never had the go for the throat ruthlessness that’s sometimes required in life. He ran against Teddy Kennedy for Senator and didn’t slam him for the death of Mary Joe Kopechne when he could and should have at one of their debates.
The red meat of us vs Them tribalism. Can’t have a civil war without factions.
Latest from Utah — “Poll: Romney up 42 points over Kennedy ahead of Tuesday’s primary”
And for the race against the Democrat in November, the latest poll at RealClearPolitics shows him at +46 over the Democrat.
I think [Romney] would have been a good president, actually.
–neo
Likewise.
I still find disturbing the near-hatred of the AlwaysTrumpers towards moderate Republicans like Romney and Paul Ryan plus the AlwaysTrumpers’ willingness to roll the dice on a loose cannon like Trump.
It could have gone disastrously. Hillary could have won — and nearly did — or Trump could have turned out to be the unprincipled blowhard/scam artist who would run the country like he did Trump University.
So far we’ve been lucky with Trump. Maybe we need someone willing to push hard and let the chips fall where they may.
But as far as I’m concerned, leftists aren’t the only people who don’t seem to know fire is hot.
I liked Romney, I like him still — but he’s a bit of wimp / technocrat. I doubt that he’s as envious bitter as most NeverTrumpers, so I doubt that he’ll do as much back stabbing as McCain, for instance.
However, he IS an elite globalist supporting most of the Democratic Liberal policies which, as implemented by the current elites, have been anti-Christian & anti-Patriotic.
Note his wimpishness:
“I agree, however, with narrower penalties levied on companies or nations that employ unfair trade practices, such as China.”
Wisely unwilling to go all-in against Trump. I see Trump as much more likely to get penalties against unfair practices than any other politician, almost especially Mr. Niceguy Romney.
But I do, and will continue to like, nice guys.
They’re not the best leaders in a war, nor even in culture / Twitter war.
Trump fights. And he fights for me.
I see Trump as much more likely to get penalties against unfair practices than any other politician, almost especially Mr. Niceguy Romney.
That is extremely ironic because the same people that talk like that are the ones that are offended when my tone isn’t quiet as nice to them as they would prefer.
It’s a brand of personal hypocrisy and power megalomania, derived from the Power System. They are afraid. When humans are afraid, they desire a Hero King to save them.
Trump fights. And he fights for me.
Thus anyone that you don’t like hearing the truth from or who you don’t like seeing speak Truth to Power, must be fighting against you or Trum, thus your Identity=Power Megalomania Mr. President Most Powerful Individual in the world able to save you.
It’s not merely neurotic, it is “Normal”.
I block out most of the psych warfare going on in what people call polls and news, so I wasn’t aware Romney was now again in the political high lights.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/02/17/will-mitt-romneys-senate-bid-turn-more-mormons-away-from-trump/
So time to read.
Met Romney once. He struck me as “The Candidate,” if anyone remembers that movie. After he let Candy Crowley and Barry O’ walk all over him, I knew he had no chance. Would never vote for him — unless he were running against a Democrat!
I voted for Romney in 2012 but more as a protest against Obama.
In truth Romney has poor judgment (remember Romney Care) and does not fight. Heck he brought a wet noodle to a gun fight in 2012.
Cycle Cyril:
You’ve bought a load of misinformation about what was actually going on with Romneycare. If you want to learn the facts about Romneycare, see this.