THE GENERAL FEELING is the same across the Republican sphere. Charles Krauthammer expressed it most eloquently recently: “The Republican bench had several candidates stronger than Romney, but they chose not to run.” That’s their story and they’re sticking to it, which was parroted by John Boehner, which The Hill picked up:
The Ohio Republican made the remarks when an unidentified woman asked during a question-and-answer session: “Can you make me love Mitt Romney?”
“No,” Boehner said. “Listen, we’re just politicians. I wasn’t elected to play God. The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney. I’ll tell you this: 95 percent of the people that show up to vote in November are going to show up in that voting booth, and they are going to vote for or against Barack Obama.
I’m just wondering if this is really true, whether Krauthammer is correct. Are there “several candidates stronger than Romney” who could beat Pres. Obama, but who aren’t running? It’s not easy to vanquish a sitting president, least of all one who ordered the successful killing of Osama bin Laden, saved the car industry, and passed health care legislation, no matter how private-based it is.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve said for over a year Obama is beatable, even wrote it in my book. However, the current Republican Party is the problem, not just Mitt Romney. Represented by the idea of Paul Ryan austerity and pulling away from a plan on health care, not to mention their fixation with continuing to add more bloat to the Pentagon, does anyone believe the general public could warm to this crowd any easier than they are to Mitt Romney?
The only argument I see being made is no one could be any harder to elect than Romney, a man who doesn’t relate to anyone but the 1% and whose fetish for secrecy, including on his own finances, is going to become a bigger issue in the fall once people start paying attention.
Then again, Pres. Obama sure isn’t going to be able to sell anyone that he’s half the “change” leader he was marketed to be as a candidate back in 2008. He’s as Wall Street as any politician and always has been, with the privatization of health care codified in law offering few long-term answers. The other reality is if Pres. Obama’s reelected he’ll offer up a “grand bargain” no Democratic leader should ever consider given the fact that raising income could do all that’s needed to “fix” entitlements if we actually had progressives in Congress who had a spine and understood their job is to stand up to the Executive, not suck up to him.
I’d like some names. Does anyone out there believe that Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, or Tim Pawlenty would have been stronger candidates? Who are they talking about here?
Romney was certainly the strongest of the GOP candidates who ran in the primaries, he proved that by outlasting them. I don’t see this “strong bench”- Mike Pence? Paul Ryan? Someone help me out here.
Boehner: “…95 percent of the people that show up to vote in November are going to show up in that voting booth, and they are going to vote for or against Barack Obama.”
Yet another indication of what happens in an either / or system.
This seems to be what I hear. People do not like President Obama and think he has done a very lousy job. I am surprised that he had not really been challenged by his own party. I do not understand why he was given a free pass to the Democrat Party nomination. Romney is nothing to get excited about. I was at a boat club that is, safe to say, majority Republican members. I was talking with some people there that I dod not know very well. It was the typical Obama bashing stuff. Then when it came to Mitt Romney, there was a general consensus that someone else, just about anyone else should have been nominated. I you think about it, Mitt Romney is a democrat who flip-flops to his views to accomodate conservative Republicans. He tried to present himself as a conservative alternative to John McCain 4 years ago. What a load of bullsheep. John McCain is a conservative who, for the good of the Country, reaches out to the other side of the spectrum in order to get things done. Romney just switches his views on positions in order to get money and votes. Being a “chameleon” may do good for a person in the business world. In politics changing with the scenery is a dumb idea. I think the best thing going for the Romney campaign is Barack Obama.
It’s ALWAYS been an either or system, at least if you are considering the existence of a United States where we voted for President. Since day one.
It is refreshing to hear the orange weeper actually tell the truth for once though.
I am voting for the Green Party Lady!
Mr. Boehner ( the smoking, tanning booth using, crying, maudlin ) one, is the face of a dying country. The faces of the future ( Jill Stein, Buddy Roemer, Rocky Anderson ) will wither and die, for it is Mr. Boehner and his ilk who have all the money. There was an interesting opinion piece on Alternet comparing the Wiemar republic with the present day United States. In it the author posits that it was not the depression that destroyed Wiemar but the austerity introduced to fight it. It was not the party in power that pushed austerity, it was the opposition groups ( right wing and extremist groups ) who were supported by guess who, the one percent, corporations and secretive right wing organizations. The wealthy did not believe democracy suited there agenda so they worked together with the right wing groups to destroy it. Now look at whats happening here: Austerity being pushed by the right wing, extremist groups, the one percent, secretive right wing money factories ( Koch Brothers ), they have bought up the media, the politicians, the channels of communication. Link all that with lack of investment, lack of high paying jobs, no social safety net and a lot of people with a lot of guns and it is easy to see us becoming Wiemar. What we don’t have is the hyper inflation, but the best is always saved for last.
Hard to find a parody of the Bonnie Raitt hit, but YouTube delivered, and for a good cause too. I especially appreciate the ending, which is a disclaimer that anything in the video is not real..even the people and dogs. Quite fitting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7IvXpQycik