It’s very interesting to see Marc Thiessen map out Mitt Romney’s strategy for taking down Texas Governor Rick Perry, but the result is a holistically incoherent message. If Romney attacks Perry from the left for opposing Social Security and Medicare, and from the right for being a lifelong creature of government, and then tries to defend his own record on health care by saying it’s a state-devised non-federal solution, while blasting Perry for being too radical about state-devised non-federal solutions, the average voter is going to have whiplash.
I don’t think the country’s most famous flip-flopper can succeed with a totally incoherent message. I know his opponents are pathetic, but how can this work for Romney?
Can Mittens be a killer? Can he take down Rick the Coyote Killer? Mittens had better discover his Inner Cowpoke in a hurry, or Crotch is gonna bury him.
He needs to paint Governor Perry as a closet Federal-Welfare Queen and Texas as a Federal Welfare State. Explain that Massachusetts has had a consistently better employment rate and standard of living over the years even though they are a higher-tax state, due to his terrific leadership of course…
Perry is a fraud. And it’s easy to point this out. He’s just the flavor of the month. Soon people will realize what a shitty aftertaste it has.
But Romney’s not really the guy I want to see win the primaries, for Obama’s sake. I think he’s hardest to beat in a general election.
Wait. You want Romney to sell Massachusetts over Texas to the Republican base. Did I read that correctly?
Yes. The numbers are there. People in MA are happier, better off income-wise, have had lower unemployment, and have a better history of crating jobs per capita despite being a higher tax state.
Despite the higher taxes, people in MA do better than those in Texas.
Oh but they’ve got the Gay Marriage thing. Forget it.
Here’s the thing about “the Gay Marriage thing”—it’s another in long line of examples of people in Massachusetts deciding they know what’s best for the country and then forcing their agenda on the rest of the US.
It’s a list that includes the Revolution, abolitionism, labor unions, and public education—among a long list of others.
You can view those as good or bad developments, but for much of the country they add up to a long history of Massachusetts thinking too highly of itself and being too willing to stick its nose into other peoples’ business. (And yes, “much of the country” most definitely includes a large chunk of Republican primary and caucus voters outside of Massachusetts.)
Problem is, the Republican Party is all about fraud, so no other Republican can call Perry out as a fraud and get away with it. It’s gonna be up to Obama to do that, after Perry wins the nomination.
For Romney to win, he just needs to do a ton of oppo research and not be afraid to get his hands dirty. Ideological positioning is irrelevant now in the GOP primary since the one candidate (Huntsman) who moved even a tiny bit left saw his support drop in half (from 2% to 1%). I think if Mittens wins and unemployment is above 8%, he’s got a 75% chance of winning. I think no matter what the economy is doing, Obama has better than even odds against Perry.
Also, Huntsman isn’t a moderate, even when paired against the extremists:
More: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/jon-huntsman-the-no-drama-conservative/
With Huntsman the thing to remember is where his family made and continues to make all of their money. They make Styrofoam. They used to make all of those McDonald’s Styrofoam clam-shell containers everyone loved so much that McDonald’s had to stop using them.
Mitt needs to peg Perry as an unsafe choice. Fence him off as an earnest and well meaning fellow but just not good or experienced enough to do the job of POTUS. Texas is OK. MA is better off. And the US economy is more like that of MA than TX. And Mitt knows business and the economy.
Well, no he doesn’t. But his only chance is to scare people we need a grown up and he’s it. That will likely work with the fraidy cat dip shit Republicans and the General, at least to a point.
Obama still can win at that game by showing he’s been far more grown up than most of the bozos in DC.
And he killed OBL. That’s serious shit, not just talk. 😉
Does the Republican base require coherence? I hadn’t noticed that they did.
The point is to bloody Perry up – Mittens can’t win a popularity contest with Perry so he has to try to win the hate-me-less-than-you-hate-him contest. That doesn’t require a coherent strategy, just a ton of crap to dump on the opponent. The crap’s directional vector is is important than its acidity and stickiness…