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The Spectacle Blog
Jiminy Christmas, that Romney video is awful. There are about five objectionable things in that one small clip — but I won’t parse it, just because I don’t want to give the Left any MORE ideas, in case they missed some of what was objectionable.
The time has come to say this: Mitt Romney needs a transfusion of grit and leadership, NOW. I’ve said things similar to what he said about why the political terrain is difficult right now in part because of the 49 percent statistic he was citing. But the point is not to write off the 49 percent: #*+dammit, the point is to persuade them. That’s what political leadership is about: persuading people. But it’s what Romney failed to do in his acceptance speech, instead choosing, just as he said in the Mother Jones video, to try to make people like him more. He’s going all Saturday Night Live/Stuart Smalley on us, trying to convince us (and maybe himself) that he is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like him, or at least should like him. Doggone it, doggone it, doggone it.
But back to grit. This is what Rick Santorum understood in his appeal to blue collar workers, etcetera: People want to know not that the candidate is a nice guy, but that he actually cares about and will work hard for them — so they can in turn achieve good things if they work hard too. They don’t mind a leader who breaks eggs to make an omelet, who takes no prisoners, or who lives out any other similar cliche about ignoring barries in order to achieve good results. The proper answer to the 49%-non-taxpayer/government dependent problem is not to write off those people, but to make them really really want to, and believe they can, become among the 51 percent. This takes grit — from them, and from the would-be president who would lead them.
More on this later. But Romney needs to change his outlook. Now. Obama is a disaster. If Romney can’t convince us he will provide something better than disaster, than shame on him.
I believe he can. But only if he stops calculating and starts finding some honest human emotions and letting us see them.
View all comments (37) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/18/time-for-romney-to-get-his-hea
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John786| 9.18.12 @ 11:06AM
The guy is a lemon. With the state of economy, he should be walking this. Whats gone wrong?
Bob Grant| 9.18.12 @ 11:14AM
Mr. Hillyer,
You DO understand the difference between privately discussing strategy with heavy-hitting donors and making public comments?
Bob Grant| 9.18.12 @ 11:17AM
If he cannot make frank assessments among people funding his campaign, it's game over anyway.
Nothing he said was inappropriate, but go ahead and make a bigger deal than it merits and that much harder to win the election.
LarryK| 9.18.12 @ 11:20AM
He's toast! Stick a fork in him and we are doomed!
Mike G| 9.18.12 @ 11:31AM
Romney needs to be on the offensive. The problem is he keeps letting the MSM put him on the defensive with drivel like this. Ignore the tripe and attack, attack, attack!
Mike Daly | 9.18.12 @ 11:35AM
We always knew the MSM would attack like this. Why, then, is Obama not the one pulling away?
Because Romney is making his point better than we're giving him credit for. His point here that a lot of people feel entitled is no-brainer truth.
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 12:00PM
There is certainly some schadenfreude in the growing realization of people paid to know such things that Romney is a terrible candidate and a clueless Ruling Class patrician not so different from Jean-Francoise Kerry.
Good luck changing that.
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 12:00PM
There is certainly some schadenfreude in the growing realization of people paid to know such things that Romney is a terrible candidate and a clueless Ruling Class patrician not so different from Jean-Francoise Kerry.
Good luck changing that.
aware| 9.18.12 @ 12:23PM
Remember my prediction back in January? Romney would be the nominee and Obama will be re-elected.
You don't need a gypsy or a crystal ball for that one.
axbucxdu| 9.18.12 @ 12:52PM
No, but it requires significant delusion to think it can be otherwise. If Romney goes down in flames taking the RINOs with him in November, it will be for good cause. It will separate those afflicted from the mirage of a conservative party. In the aftermath, perhaps conservatives can then have their say. They'd better be prepared, because Dems will have won only a temporary victory. Stand back, and watch as arithmetic engulfs them and their hangers on. Just make certain you're on high ground.
John Navratil| 9.18.12 @ 2:01PM
axbucdu,
Another four years and a "temporary" victory. Small solace for generations of economic misery.
axbucxdu| 9.18.12 @ 5:26PM
I don't create the circumstances, I just point them out. But think about it: We were all told, just go along, vote for Mitt, he's the ony one that's electable. OK, I'll play along. But if he fails, then those who agitated and whispered his name over others need to be expunged, purged, ejected, from party influence. It must either be the conservative way, or OUT! The opportunity for clearing the hacks and deadwood will never be greater. No further mishmash without principle can be tolerated.
Let's ride it out, and see what happens, but be ready: Arithmetic has no respect for politics. Not even prog politics.
aware| 9.18.12 @ 2:03PM
What do "conservatives" want? They say "small government" but vote for and support rank statists, like Santorum or Ryan. Or even Romney, for God's sake!
Also, conservative nor liberal is going to like how the next few years go. The overture is just about over and the main event about to start. And it's going to be very ugly.
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 3:47PM
The welfare state must be torn down. This means that even some conservatives must relinquish the teat. Mittens won't tear it down anymore than Obama will---he prefers to run it. But soon it will be tear down or be crushed when it collapses of its own weight.
aware| 9.18.12 @ 7:00PM
It will collapse on its own, nothing can stop it now. Nothing but Uncle Ben's Magic Funny Money even keeping the crumbling facade up now.
Conservatives should have spent more time killing the beast, or at least chopping off a few tentacles, instead of deluding themselves it can be tamed and used for "good".
They just won't bring themselves to see the true nature of the State, which is not so much an entity as it is a "select" group who profit from the writing of "laws" for the "people", that the "select" are mostly exempt from.
And behind that monster is this monster:
http://www.libertariannews.org.....l-reserve/
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 3:48PM
Your last sentence said it all. Thank you!!!!
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 3:49PM
"....And it's going to be very ugly..."
Zeppo| 9.18.12 @ 1:31PM
Mitt will never win over the squishy independents just by saying that 0bama is "over his head." In their low-information, sentimentality-soaked world, Dear Leader remains a nice young fellow who is struggling against "divisiveness". If Mitt can't give them a positive reason to vote for him, he is toast. What really gets me is that he is paying "a very good team of extraordinarily experienced, highly successful consultants" who to a man undoubtedly see themselves as steely-eyed realists, to come up with this disaster of a campaign.
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 3:48PM
Squishy independents maybe, but independents overall have become more conservative thanks to Bush, Boehner, McConnell, and now Romney. That's because so many disgusted conservatives have left the GOP.
CJW| 9.18.12 @ 4:18PM
You may be correct, but the choice is Obama or Romney. Who you voting for?
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 5:26PM
That is not the choice, nor are you and many conservatives voting FOR Romney. You are voting AGAINST Obama. There will be any number of other options to vote against Obama on the ballot as well.
The difference between you and I is that I vote for people to DO something, not BE something. It does zero good---and as we saw with Bush I and II significant evil---to vote for a liberal or moderate simply because they have the magic (-R). They read such votes as mandates to govern to the left of the electorate. They use their victory margins to purge conservatives and to staff up with left-leaning Republicans (when they don't put on the bipartisan show by picking Democrats outright). Moreover, they insist out of party unity that conservatives support their leftward tacks, damaging the brand, demoralizing the base, and compromising the agenda.
Mitt Romney wants to be president because his old man wanted to be president. He is a Northeast liberal surrounded by liberals who has governed and will govern as a liberal. No, I won't cast a vote FOR him.
And in contrast to idiots who cannot do simple electoral math, not casting a vote for Romney is not the same thing as casting a vote for Obama. The latter requires 2 votes to overcome; the former just 1.
CJW| 9.18.12 @ 6:27PM
I, and others, are voting FOR Romney because he will be a better president than Obama. A vote for one always requires a comparison with the other so you can always say it is a vote against the other. But how can anyone not conclude that Romney will be better than Obama based on Obama's record when you know Obama has been a terrible president.
C Bowen | 9.18.12 @ 7:42PM
Obama sparked the, albeit shortlived, Tea Party vote in the midterms. Romney's stated policies of more spending and debt, no tax cuts and hints at another amnesty, will get Republicans killed at the state and local level, where Republicans are far more responsive to conservatives.
Conservatives have no dog in this election.
aware| 9.18.12 @ 7:05PM
If I don't vote for Obama does that count as a vote for Romney?And if I don't vote for anybody is that really a vote for everybody?
Zeppo| 9.18.12 @ 4:18PM
Even conservatives would like to hear some positive reasons why they should vote for Mitt (I know I would). "I'm less bad than 0bama" may be enough for a lot of voters, but I doubt that it's enough to win.
Teflon93 | 9.18.12 @ 5:27PM
The problem is that Mittens and the MittBots don't believe they owe conservatives a damned thing.
aware| 9.18.12 @ 7:11PM
They don't.
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 3:15PM
Speaking of those with their head in their posterior so far that their ears are wiggling within their navel cavity perhaps:
'.....Analysts are now projecting that the Democrats will hold on but with a reduced majority, the Atlantic Wire reports......
“In one of the most closely watched and hardest fought races, Democrat Elizabeth Warren has opened up a lead on Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts,” the Atlantic Wire writes. “FiveThirtyEight gives her a 64 percent chance of winning at the moment. A Michigan Senate race that was thought to be competitive earlier this year is now looking like a blowout for Democrat Debbie Stabenow, and Missouri's Claire McCaskill is pulling away from everyone's favorite rape pregnancy expert Todd Akin.”.....'
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 3:44PM
'...... it looks as though we're in for another week-long stink of media-manufactured outrage.But over what, exactly ?Over a conservative talking like a conservative and laying out facts. When I saw these videos, my first thought was, "Gee, I wish Romney would talk this way on the campaign trail."...... FACT: 47% of tax-filers in this country pay no federal income tax. That's not 47% of Americans, mind you; that's 47% of people who file federal income taxes. That's not only a fact, it's a crime. Why should anyone who qualifies to file a federal tax return get away with paying zero federal income taxes? Why should 47% of tax-filers have no investment whatsoever in their government? There are plenty of reasons this travesty has been allowed to occur, including tax credits, deductions, exemptions, the earned income tax credit, and on and on and on…. Then you have, as Romney points out, the professional victims and the freeloaders who think the rest of us owe them something. Moreover, who's paying the bills for the 47%? Those of us who do pay federal income taxes, who are not on the dole, and who do not fit into whatever behavior-box the government created that serves up the write-off goodies. It's an absolute disgrace that this happens, and it's unfortunate Romney would choose to bring up this issue behind closed doors instead of every freakin' day on the campaign trail......'
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 5:03PM
Lets all get down and kiss Maureen's ars too:
'.... In her rant, titled “Neocons Slither Back” Dowd used ancient anti-Semitic imagery.Via Twitchy, we learn that Obama's chief water-carriers at Politico chose to bury the fact that Team Obama endorsed Dowd's column.
But that's what the media and Politico and Dylan Byers do -- protect Obama. And safe in the knowledge the media will protect them, the Obama campaign is secure in trafficking in lies and division and Jewish stereotypes.Must I even ask: What if Team Romney had tweeted out something half as rank as Dowd's piece?...'
Crassus| 9.18.12 @ 4:43PM
Romney has nice hair and a trophy wife. That's about it. The only reason I'm voting for him is because Ryan is on the ticket.
Oldefarte| 9.18.12 @ 5:06PM
Well I'm voting for both of them because I DON'T WANT aMERICAN TO MAKE THE SAME DUMBARS MISTAKE THAT IT DID ON 11/4/08, AND AS A RESULT OF SAME, FOR THIS COUNTRY TO BECOME TOTALLY DESTROYED WITHIN TWO YEARS OF 11/6/12. Beyond that, I don't GIVE AN EXCREMENT!!!!!!!!
C Bowen | 9.18.12 @ 6:31PM
Does Romney not understand that the Wall Street bankers who feel entitled to massive bailouts when their bets go back support him strongly?
Romney's support for TARP just show how out of touch he is as a political thinker, and what a ridiculous candidate in light of the successful so-called, Tea Party message of 2010.
Occam's Tool| 9.18.12 @ 8:34PM
He should say that he wants to cut taxes across the board as a stimulus, and let the Genius of the American people loose.
He should say when Reagan cut taxes, the economy boomed and GOVERNMENT REVENUES went UP, and that with spending cuts, the deficit can be reduced.
That's all he would need to say on domestic policy---cut spending, cut taxes. That should be his domestic policy. Four words: Cut Spending, Cut Taxes.
Energy Policy: Drill, Baby, Drill.
Foreign Policy: No better friend, No worse enemy.
This stuff is not hard. Brain neurochemistry is hard; Government policy is easy. Finding the guts to carry it through is not. Reagan did NOT do complex things; he did simple (not easy) things very well.
Occam's Tool| 9.18.12 @ 8:35PM
Obama, by the way, is infinitely worse than Romney. Romney may be a RINO, but Obama is a traitor. Vast difference.
Oldefarte| 9.19.12 @ 2:07PM
I would respectfully disagree somewhat, in that a "traitor" is defined as A DISLOYAL PERSON with the implication that same was once-upon-a-time somewhat LOYAL, and that a conversion was enhanced]. I'm not of the opinion that this president was EVER LOYAL to this country, its government or its constitution!!!!!!
Ozzies4Obama| 10.17.12 @ 6:42PM
The fact that some of Romney's own felt he needed work after this debacle is indicative of the inappropriateness of his comments. The fact that they were private comments is neither here nor there - his perception of the American electorate should be enough to show he doesn't not have a proper grasp of what America needs.