Vindicating Romney
Too little, too late, doesn’t matter any more. “I told you so” doesn’t work in history, unless people learn from their mistakes, which most do not.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Too little, too late, doesn’t matter any more. “I told you so” doesn’t work in history, unless people learn from their mistakes, which most do not.
The 2012 election was a real wake-up call for me. It became clear that the electorate had changed pretty dramatically and we would all be paying the price from here on out.
It wasn’t that easy to support McCain in 2008 (although I was still a Dem at that point and I voted for him over BO).
But sheesh, it’s hard to imagine a more striking contrast than between BO and Mitt Romney. Romney isn’t perfect of course but he was such a clearly superior candidate in every way (to me anyway). The guy just emanates intelligence, experience and competence. He was far and away the better person for the job and still Americans voted the other way…for whatever reasons (I know Romney was bested in the digital ground game).
But as our next president would say…”what difference, at this point, does it make?”
Romney is a decent man and would have made an honest and capable president. Instead the US has Obama, a demonic man who has worked hard to see the US fail. Remember when Romney said he would never apologize for the United States.
Romney and Bush deserve apologies. Bush kept us safe. Obama wants to put us in harm’s way.
He is a criminally insane domestic terrorist and should be removed and institutionalized while awaiting trial for crimes against America. He is certifiable. This does not even come close to defining my comtempt for the man.
CV is so right–except for the last paragraph. Although I am a cynical old man, I cling to a desperate belief that the American electorate is not completely foolish. In 2016 it has to be obvious to most that thought and care must be taken with each vote; and that will ensure that Hillary is not elected.
I always thought the Romney would make a fine President. Nothing has disabused me of that notion.
Expanding on the theme of age, and the notion of learning from mistakes. I have reached the point at which I am conscious of my mortality; and know that not too much in the way of future developments will have a big effect on me personally. Still, I fret about what my children and grandchildren will inherit. Then I remember the rolled eyes when I speak of political concerns, and the obviously unread emails intended to educate, and I think; “well you will live with your choices.” I expect that a number of readers of this site know the feeling.
Oldflyer: “I expect that a number of readers of this site know the feeling.”
Too well. Most of us will only be taught by experience. Too few will even try to link historical events that provide a guide toward good decisions. Was I any different when I was young? No, I wasn’t. It took Vietnam to get my attention. Shock therapy. Too bad we humans are like that.
This article about Romney’s correct stance on so many positions has recalled the shock and sadness of November 2012. It still seems that the election results could not possibly be true. Now we are getting the learning experience of that election – good and hard.
My rallying cry during the campaign was ABO! Anybody But Obama! I would have voted for a ham sandwich over Obama. And yes, a ham sandwich could not do worse than what we’re getting. Too may people stayed home or voted Libertarian for Gary Johnson. I still see many people still proclaiming that they will never vote for another Republican again. If so, welcome to the United Soviet States of America, where everyone is equally miserable.
I’m with you, Oldflyer, in that I’m clinging to that desperate hope that Hillary won’t be the next president. Mostly because I still think that Obama was elected and then re-elected primarily because of the first black president phenomenon. The first female president doesn’t have the same heavy pull, I don’t believe. Plus, Hillary is not an unknown quantity; there are lots of very well-known negatives with her.
Of course, the Republicans will still have to put up a really good candidate, and one with wide appeal, because it won’t be an easy win by any means.
The vote was rigged — mostly by Google executives.
Read The Atlantic — going back almost a year ago.
They wrote it all up.
0bama-bots were psychologically projecting onto Romney’s campaign everything that they, themselves, were doing.
Everything they said they were attempting to thwart — happened exactly that way with Orca.
What a coincidence!
Romney can’t be vindicated. He lost. That’s all that matters. As Vince Lombardi said “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”.
And I do think that the countries population has changed and that there is an excellent chance that we are headed into a leftist dark ages for as long certainly as anyone reading this is going to be alive.
The only positive thing I can think of is that William F. Buckley thought that he and conservatives where on the losing side and would have to be just a remnant for when the dark ages ended. Let’s hope that history repeats itself.
Romney being right about the issues was never the problem. His campaign failed to convince the voters of that, and from the sounds of it, his former managers and associates still haven’t fully accepted that.
As the saying goes:
If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, it would be Christmas all year round.
CV…Well said. I’m still in shock and extreme ‘flatness’ from November 6th. Naive me. I was sure that the country—having witnessed the 4-years of The Boy King—would vote his scrawny azz outta there and replace it with an ADULT Problem Solver. His utter ineptitude in the debates and Biden’s dazzling vapidity in jousting with Paul Ryan was icing, I thought.
God, I was young then, a scant year ago. On November 7th(and now)I felt my aged sixties. Stunned then and now.
The following site provides a great article on Reagan and his devotion to FDR that took so long to abate. My impression of Romney was that he was similar to Reagan in this regard: ineluctably moving to social conservatism.
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=1082
Here’s a Reagan quote and see if it does not suggest Romney:
“Two visions of the world remain locked in dispute. The first believes all men are created equal by a loving God who has blessed us with freedom. Abraham Lincoln spoke for us…. The second vision believes that religion is opium for the masses. It believes that eternal principles like truth, liberty, and democracy have no meaning beyond the whim of the state. And Lenin spoke for them.”
That, I believe, is in Romney’s heart. If he would have articulated his true distinction from Obama?
Vindicating Us.
“Conservatives and old liberals who seek to oppose these changes must return to where they lost the battle: the intellectual arena. They should first begin with a genealogy of neo-progressivism to weaken the myths that sustain it.”
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/08/liberalism-radicalized-the-sexual-revolution-multiculturalism-and-the-rise-of-identity-politics
Romney was just lousy at politics, beginning back in 1994, but there was no way he was ever going to be deterred.That’s not the Mitt Romney way! There are plenty of them in the GOP and they get a lot of corporate support and make primary voters feel comfortable, then get toasted in the general.
Romney’s problem was that he was fighting a political fight, when it was really just a war between good and evil. Wrong priorities, thus wrong methods, tactics, and strategy.
I’ve heard the Japanese once say that they have a saying: ignorant people must learn from their own mistakes, while wise men learn from the mistakes of others (history).
It’s certainly something I’ve found myself doing to my own benefit, and something which it is incredibly hard to get others to emulate.
Romney should have been the candidate in 2008. Unfortunately, John McCain won the primary and the rest is history.
The primary system is essentially under the control of Democrat agents. Then again, so are elections, education, the media, and ATF.
Excellent link to the Heritage Foundation paper, sharpie. What a wonderful dissection of the history of progressivism in the U.S.
“Neo-progressives assent to an underlying logic for the good life and the good society, but that logic is radically different from the previous liberal morality. The cultural shift has granted all Americans unprecedented individual freedoms in sexual expression. So too has it erected a new politically correct morality along with an official narrative that highlights the West as the engine of oppression and repression.”
Pretty much sums things up. It will be a long road back.
southpaw: Romney wasn’t a perfect candidate but he was better than some give him credit for. He was making progress – remember the first debate? That’s when the MFM realized it had to go into overdrive to protect Obama and we saw the results in the second debate with Candy Crowley.
The problem with RINOs is not that they are moderate on some issues, but that they still naively believe and act like the mainstream press is anything but an arm of the Democrats.
1. I voted for Romney even though I thought he deserved to lose, and would.
2. For a brief shining moment at the Solyndra press conference, I thought he’d actually fight. Then, the usual Stupid Party incompetence.
3. Way too many people on the Right remain entrenched in denial.
Sharpie said that Romney was moving toward social conservatism. No, he is personally very socially conservative, but as someone coming from an often mocked minority, he had to operate within an anything-goes society. He didn’t beat his breast and say how superior he was to everyone else. Yet that is what many on our side wanted. Too many wanted someone who would come out fighting as opposed to thinking. If we had spent more of our energy building enthusiasm and less pointing out his faults, he may have won. I hope we have learned something.
expat:
I don’t think we’ve learned a thing. Au contraire. If the blogosphere is any indication, a great many people on the right have become more entrenched in their “the perfect is the enemy of the good, but I’m going for perfect anyway” philosophy. I see more and more people saying “I’ll never vote for another Republican,” and “both parties are the same so it doesn’t matter.”
I predicted before the 2012 election (I’m too lazy to find the link right now) that if Romney lost people would blame his loss on his being a supposed RINO, and would become even more rigid about not voting for anyone except ultra-conservative and/or ultra-libertarian candidates, thus ensuring the triumph of the left.
Largely OT, but not exactly.
Saw this while reading that:
14 Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped
soupcon: “Romney was just lousy at politics”
Romney was fine. He was a good candidate, the best candidate for President from either party I can recall in my voting life.
It’s not Romney who was “lousy at politics” anymore than Obama was great at politics. It’s the entire GOP and Right that’s inferior at politics. Obama didn’t win because Obama is a great politician. Obama won because the Left never stops their Marxist activist ground game. They don’t just gear up for election cycles.
Look around right now. Where’s the Right’s Marxist activist ground game? Yeah, I don’t see one, either. That’s why Romney lost.
* By “Marxist activist” I mean the methodology, of course, not the ideology.
“the best candidate for President from either party I can recall in my voting life.”
I wouldn’t go *that* far.
FOAF,
You don’t know how old I am.
}}} “the best candidate for President from either party I can recall in my voting life.”
}}} I wouldn’t go *that* far.
I think for a politician he was a lot more honest — or came off that way — than anyone else since Reagan.
So he was either as good a poseur as Obama or he was as genuine as Reagan. His backing of “Romneycare” is the best argument for the “poseur” position. His history and background as a Mormon the best argument for the latter.
I concur somewhat with the “ground game” argument. The media being so utterly and indisputably in the tank for Teh One is the real issue. That crap at the “debates”, where the moderator fed Obama a lie to agree with was just completely bogus.
His backing of “Romneycare” is the best argument for the “poseur” position.
It’s always been acceptable for the conservative base that abortion and healthcare be given to the states to manage and fund. This isn’t very extreme for even the fundamentalists to accept in the end.
The fact that the Left will not accept it is, is why politics turn extreme. And eventually, to something else entirely.
Being right about the issues is irrelevant. The election was never about issues. It was about feelings.
The election was about how many fake Democrat votes they could rig.
Dead people voted, many voted many time. We need a picture voter ID and until we get it, the Dems will win.