I loved Michelle Obama’s line in her speech: “A presidency reveals who you are.” So do campaigns. And mark me down as one Republican not happy with what is being revealed about Mitt Romney. – Mark McKinnon
THE NATIONAL press is working overtime. “He can still win” and answers to the question surrounding that notion now blanket the American media.
Joe Scarborough asked Howard Fineman this morning, “Is it over?” “No,” said Fineman, dutifully keeping the “he can still win” narrative alive.
This would be understandable if Mitt Romney was aggressively driving his campaign to change its current trajectory. He is not.
Mitt Romney’s response to the catastrophe he’s living and we’re all watching was a USA Today op-ed that doesn’t even crack 500 words.
Today, Nevada’s Dean Heller, up against Shelley Berkly for the Senate, became the latest Republican to walk away from Mitt Romney’s 47% remark.
But on goes the it’s far too early to pronounce Romney a loser chant, even if everything points to exactly that reality.
The best you can say is Mitt Romney is now the underdog, though it would be the first time in world history a man on his way to being a billionaire fit into that club.
It’s understandable what’s going on, because how democratic would it be in the new media, social media era in which we now live to stamp D.O.A. on a presidential candidate before a vote’s been cast?
The American political system in this environment is withering, while revealing the paucity of choices of candidates for office, because few can survive the juggernaut. There are no discussions in the media about Obama making a proposal to which Romney can respond, leading to a debate on issues as the drama unfolds across multiple platforms. Instead it’s all about gamesmanship, the latest sound bite, and who can bullshit better about turning the the economy around when both candidates are short on actual plans. And let’s face it, we should really be talking to Wall Streeters, because they’ve got us all by the balls.
That was supposed to be Mitt Romney’s case for his candidacy. So what happened?
Over the last weeks, actually starting with Mitt Romney’s foreign policy trip, a word that describes it in the literal sense as well, Romney’s serial mistakes have resulted in President Obama drawing even with him on who can best handle the economy. If that isn’t illustrative of the farce of our economic battles nothing is; one man screws up, the other man benefits; no policy prescriptions were debated to cause the switch. On likability Mitt Romney remains in no man’s land.
Women are giving the Republican national ticket the finger with both hands, which is richly deserved. No one cares if you are against abortion, but people do tend to object strenuously when you start campaigning on forcing a woman to give birth after she’s been raped or is a victim of incest. The notion is not only barbaric, it is cruel.
Any professional political analyst looking at the recent polling data has to come to one conclusion: Barack Obama is clearly ahead in the Electoral College challenge, which is the only thing that matters. Mitt Romney’s continual ineptitude, as a candidate and the CEO of his own campaign, has now relegated him to underdog status, with a hard fight needed to regain ground he’s lost.
Chuck Todd is the first of the media gang that shapes the narrative in American politics to make the turn to what I’m talking about here, citing polling evidence over weeks and weeks to prove the reality Mitt Romney is now facing.
“He can still win,” as everyone across the media continues to chant in unison, but the hill he’s now got to climb to change the trajectory in states that matter, coupled with the demographic divide he chose not to court with his pick of Paul Ryan, is only passable for a political triathlete, which Romney is not.
The best that can be hoped for is a debate miracle.
Until that manifests it’s time for political writers, infotainment hosts, pundits and conservative bloggers and talk radio bloviators to let go of the “he can still win” narrative until Mitt Romney illustrates he’s going to do something to actually change the dynamics now playing out.
Barack Obama is now leading. Full. Stop.
Mitt Romney is the underdog, with the odds stacked against him, because he made it so himself.
“He can still win” at this point is a hail Mary narrative made by the media who doesn’t want to shiv the democratic process, joined by desperate Republicans, conservatives and right-wingers who just can’t believe they’re on the way to getting beat again by Barack Obama.
Because of Mitt Romney and the way he’s running his campaign, that’s exactly what’s likely to happen.
I agree with everything you’ve written in this article, Taylor. Of course, one can never really stop worrying about the GOP and its history of dirty tricks. But the way things stand right now, and in light of some new polls, particularly the Pew poll just out this afternoon, I cannot see a win for Romney. I think he’s finished. And based on how I have grown to despise what he stands for, it will be a pleasure to watch his defeat.
I can no longer bear to listen to Ari Fleisher, Baye Buchanan, Mary Maitlin, etc. all reciting the same bullshit talking points about what Romney really meant in that video.
ROTFL. They are all just doing what they feel is their duty to the cause and to their party, but deep down they know the truth. Others do it in the name of . . . balance.
Having said that, it is so lovely when one of them (Mittens) gets caught in a moment of crystalline honesty.
And now poor Ann, trying to clean up his mess after him as always.
As George Takei would say “oh my!”
We can still win? Ugh, what horrible messaging. Sounds like a baseball manager in late August whose star pitcher was just shelled in his last outing. The pitcher has an e.r.a. hovering above 5, and just re-injured his rotator cuff. The manager is three games out of the wild card chase, has no bats to speak of, has a weak rotation, and an even weaker closing bench, but is still talking being able to “win.”
It may not be over till the fat lady sings, but I am definitely hearing her practicing her scales even as I type this.
You could have saved yourself a paragraph of typing by just writing “They sound like Philadelphia sports writers lately”.
“A presidency reveals who you are.”
Indefinite preventative detention.
NDAA
“Health Care Reform” as designed by the Heritage Foundation.
Bart Stupak
Bailouts for Wall Street but not Americans.
No prosecution of Wall Streeters.
Failed promises on Afghanistan, Guantanemo, Iraq
etc. etc
O.K. then!
Yep, nothing good….ALL bad. So clever.
Much obliged!
Sure thing, trolls need to eat too.
aww, now you’ve completely demoralized me with your lack of substance and name-calling…how can I ever soldier on? Oh yeah, as always…thanks for playing, though!
start quote:
Indefinite preventative detention.
NDAA
end quote
And, since “Constitutional scholar” candidate Obama was firmly against these things, quite clearly not guided by any real convictions.
and to add some more:
1) 23 million Americans are unemployed or under employed.
2) A 46% increase in the number Americans on Food Stamps (SNAP) since Obama took office.
3) A drop of 4.6% in median income since Obama took office.
4) When Obama took office gas was $1.83/gal. It’s now $3.84/gal.
5) The National Debt just exceeded $16 trillion.
6) Failed foreign policy for the Middle East.
A presidency definitely reveals who you are.
So nice to see the usual suspects trolling along with the same, unoriginal, dishonest song
1) “23 million Americans are unemployed or under employed.”
And a repugnantklan/teabagger mob that has blocked every single attempt to do anything about it including the latest blocking of a bill to help veterans.
2)” A 46% increase in the number Americans on Food Stamps (SNAP) since Obama took office.”
See answer to number one with the additional information of the Bush debacle that started the economic meltdown.
3)” A drop of 4.6% in median income since Obama took office.”
See answer to #2
4)” When Obama took office gas was $1.83/gal. It’s now $3.84/gal.”
The President has absolutely NOTHING to do with the price of gas….unless you are proposing…GASP…he nationalize the oil companies?!!!!! I haven’t noticed the repugnantklan/teabagger House proposing anything? After all, ALL Bills must start in the House…right?
5) “The National Debt just exceeded $16 trillion”
See answer to #1 and 2
6) “Failed foreign policy for the Middle East.”
That broken record is pretty old and no one bought it the first 3,000 times you wailed it.
Let’s keep the “trolling” nonsense down to a dull roar, please.
EVERYONE is welcome here.
NO POLITICAL PARTY OWNS THIS FORUM.
Thanks to everyone.
Forgot your meds again!
Do you have anything to contribute other than jejune insults? If not, please go channel your inner five year old somewhere else.
Disturbing — seek medical help quickly!
Matalin’s rhetoric hasn’t changed much from the “welfare queen” days of Reagan. The people she describes represent a small part of the people who pay no income taxes. Most are, as that graphic suggests, people who did pay income taxes, or will in the future.
Everyone who buys things in America pays sales taxes. Everyone who drives a car, or consumes alcohol or tobacco pays taxes. We pay taxes on our phone bills, and most utilities. You have to be some kind of stupid to assert that just because people don’t pay income taxes that they don’t pay any taxes.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that the lowest-earning 20% of Americans pay more than 12% of their income in state and local taxes. Recall that Romney’s federal tax burden was about that same number. That someone who never will have any economic worries in his life is complaining about paying what, at most, is twice what these folks pay as a percentage of their income is absurd. I’m supposed to feel sorrow at the horrible injustce here? I don’t think so.
Let them live like the lowest quintile does for a while, with no hope of getting their wealth back, and then we an talk about economic fairness.
The wheels may have finally come off this thing. Looks like a landslide brewing. The cracks are now big enough to swallow Jeeps.
My grandma always said “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” Unfortunately, it’s a long way to November and a lot could happen between now and then. I’m not a fortune teller so I’m not even going to hazard a guess as to who will be elected. Too many variables in this election.
Ramsgate September 19, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Don’t know if a landslide is possible with today’s political makeup of the electorate, but Obama is clearly ahead by all measurable standards.
Unless Romney does something to change the field of play — a miracle debate moment or stumble by Obama — the trajectory will not change.
It’s up to Romney’s campaign to prove “he can still win.” So far they have not.
OK, all this celebration and bravado has got me thinking. I need to start preparing. So, what are the signature legislation pieces Obama will be accomplishing in his second term that I had better start preparing myself for?
casualobserver….how Obama govern right now, is the same legislation you will see in his second term. A GOP presidency would give us endless wars, more tax cuts for the rich and a new yacht for Mittens. Obama is no better but like the old saying goes “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know”…so it does not surprise me voters lean more toward keeping Obama in the White House.
Casualobserver: “Signature Legislation”? Please. No, Puhleeeze!!!
Let’s not get our hopes up. Expect a replay of the first term if not even more signature disappointments for progressives.
The. Grand. Bargain.
He thinks that will get him a statue.
Rename the Potomac River or something.
I refuse to give up on Mittens…I have forty-bucks ridding on him to pull this thing off….LOL
Just kidding
Look no winner will be officially declared until November. So, Romney team/supports have every right to keep hoping/praying that their guy somehow magically survive this latest screw up. I am sure right now they are wishing for a major Biden gaffe distraction at Team Romney headquarters.
Don’t give up on Romney. He WILL win this in November. Because Obama is the evil, Manchurianist, empty suited, dependent making, un-American, anti-American, not-American, terrorist loving, apologist, weak-wrist, weak-kneed, all-around poopy head EVER! Go Romneylicious!!!!!! Obumbaramadamaloomadoo MUST GO!!!!!!
*sarcasm off* LOL!
Personally I see a 50/50 chance going either way. I think the polls are wrong because if they ain’t sampling everyone and the dude in the outhouse then it isn’t accurate. This is a dead heat. Winner gets a chicken dinner and a wonderful dessert at my place.
Mitt Romney sitting in front of a Univision audience uses the term “illegal Alien”! LOL! What an total a**!
Why is no one writing about he fact that the bottom 20 percent pay no federal income taxes because of the earned income tax credit? A Republican program hailed by all the likely suspects to reward work and raise people out of poverty.
Thank you for this observation, Lake Lady. The radical conservatives will never admit nor acknowledge what they once advocated: from the earned income tax credit, to the healthcare mandate and the healthcare bill which is the brainchild of the conservative think-tank, the Heritage Foundation, to cap and trade and on and on. Or, that their party has devolved into a backwards machine bent on bringing this country where it never was before: to the dark ages with white, heterosexual men in charge and the women who submit to their cold, inhumane authoritarian rule where taxes are almost non-existent and the 99% are serfs meant to do their ignoble bidding for low or no wages where unions were non-existant.
Whilst the electeds of the Dem Party have mostly now become the once-rational, Eisenhower party of the 1950′s but with scant courage to stand up for what they once believed in in the new deal and the great society with a policy to wipe out poverty, the GOP has gone MAD and the GOP is now being lead by their honkers by these ignorant people http://tinyurl.com/njhmmg and those who were voted into office by them who have no clue how government works and how to get things done to benefit all Americans. But, don’t take away their Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid!
And, how ironic that so many of these people are part of that 47% contemptuously reviled by their Party’s leader, Mitt Antoinette for whom they will enthusiastically cast their votes even if he is their own “lessor of two evils”.
Bill Moyers retweeted this today with a link to an article by Richard Escrow.
“@billmoyers Richard Escrow: The Romney video offers a rare glimpse of rich people “full of rage, ruthless & radical.” http://tinyurl.com/cmf6pj2 It’s a must read.
http://tinyurl.com/cmqbgpl A complement article by Paul Krugman and another must read.
That millions of the very people Romney insulted will somehow still foolishly vote for Romney — is a sign of the very near ending of the American empire/experiment!
A second American Civil War now appears inevitable! With more guns in America than people!
Meh, fcdt3,
If the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket, Fascism is the more likely end game. We came awful close in the 1930′s and with the system weaker and much more corrupt than it was in FDR’s time we might succumb this time around.