Anyone else getting the first whiffs of panic on the Republican side? Odd thing, though. I’m seeing plenty of resignation, too. I mean, I don’t think Ohio Governor John Kasich really gives two craps whether Romney wins or loses, and he really should be a little more concerned. But then I remember that George Will wrote off Romney’s chances at the beginning of March. It’s been somewhat mysterious to me why Romney was holding steady in spite of the fact that his own party seems totally indifferent to his fate. When this election is over, I think I will make a concerted effort to see what held Romney up for so long. But you heard it here first, and you didn’t hear it much anywhere else. The GOP spent all of last year systematically trying out every available alternative to Mitt Romney. They hated him. And, yet, they couldn’t figure out a way to reject him. The rest of us will take care of that. The only question is how much we can walk away with. What is nailed down, and what is just going to float away when the ship goes under? I want to pick up seats in the Senate, and I want the House.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
27 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own” playing as Obama walked off the stage at the Convention ENDED Romney. More Springsteen.
Agree 100%.
Honestly, I think the Republican establishment never really wanted to win this cycle. They never really wanted to try to win against a candidate with President Obama’s chops, and never really wanted to have to take responsibility for doing something with the epic mess that is the current economy. Furthermore, nobody likes Romney and this is a good way to get him to go away. The real problem they have is that he was supposed to be able to lose competently, and he’s not. Now they’re faced with the very real prospect of losing the House and not retaking the Senate in a year that would have to be their best shot for doing so. This was not in the plans at all. I think we’ll see some real disgust and anger from establishment figures in the party as the numbers slide further and further into the Blue.
i have never ever bought the line “they’re throwing the race”, from any party. it’s too tin-foiled for my taste.
everyone wants control — and after they’ve got it, no one wants to give it up. especially since there’s no guarantee of getting it back. there’s always too much at stake.
while i’ve heard many folks from many sides at many times complain “so-and-so is throwing the race!”, i have never once heard any supporter seriously argue: “yeah, we should let our opponent win this one.”
I absolutely don’t buy it either. They have not only been serious about winning, they were hell-bent in it and believed it was a no-brainer that America was going conservative full-tilt. Maybe that’s why they had so many candidates with no brains.
First of all, from their point of view, a Tea Party takeover of the country was virtually inevitable. That was their reading of the 2010 midterms.
Secondly, if they weren’t serious, what’s all this about Citizens United and the unbelievable troves of cash being shelled out by RW squintillionaires?
The truth is, the GOP is in a state of advanced decay. Among the leaders, there are very few with any intelligence, and virtually none with honor. They have spent decades dumbing themselves down, developing delusional systems, and driving anyone out of the party that that shows the slightest independence or originality.
They totally “misunderestimated” Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, because they could not see anyhting but hteir own caricatures.
The sobering reality is that Mitt Romney really was their most viable candidate.
all excellent points, especially the money point: if sheldon adelson and his friends really wanted romney to go away, they’d have just bought someone else during the primary.
Thanks. Actually, if you recall, Adelson did buy someone else during the primary — Newt Gingrich was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sheldon Adelson, Inc. Only when Gingrich tanked did Adelson switch to Romney.
Romney won the primary because he had the superior smear machine. He has nothing to offer except negativity.
And he’s already gone Birther. There’s nothing left.
It’s really stunning isn’t it. You see it in Romney’s eyes, in the way he carries himself. The question is whether Romney will ultimately decide to go out with dignity or he will be an asshole. All signs are on door number 2.
Re: Senate seats, some good news today: looks like the MA race is all tied up, after a few discouraging weeks of Brown in the lead.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-elizabeth-warren-catches-up-with-scott-brown
Given how many crossover Dem votes Brown needs to win, a tied race has to be a very good sign for Warren, right?
You’d think. But you’d be really surprised at how many stupid people there are who think that a vote for Warren is a vote for more gridlock.
I know some liberal minded people who would vote Republican given a different candidate just to stop the gridlock.
I don’t know if it’ll be a blowout – I’m still concerned about the small number of undecideds, the massive voter suppression apparatus, and the deluge of ads we’ll start seeing in October. But even these don’t threaten the final outcome at the presidential level, the latter two very much affect downticket races.
People thinking Obama has it in the bag will likely lead to some folks not turning out, and others in the disaffected Dem base jumping to third party candidates (Stein, Anderson, Johnson). Even if the White House isn’t in play, Senate and House seats are. So are a ton of governorships and state legislative seats, and we’ve seen what hothouses of insanity those can be. So I’m all for using the spectres of voter suppression, SuperPACs, etc. to keep people motivated on the presidential race. We need those votes downticket. A lot.
Alexander here.
Romney ’12 = Kerry ’04, flip flops and all…
?
The economy is not good. Just because you don’t think it was Obama’s fault doesn’t mean there isn’t someone potentially better who should replace him. But thanks to Obama’s team and Romney and the GOP’s own stupidity, more and more people are realizing Romney is not that guy.
In a recent comment about potential voter slippage from Romney to Obama, I said I expected an intermediate position. That is, undecided would uptick with a more or less corresponding drop in Romney’s support.
Such an animal is likely to be being seen in MA. Detailed analysis of the latest poll from MA, indicates: “There is a small spike in the number of undecided voters in Central Massachusetts (10%)”. Central MASS is Framington thru Worcester and includes Fitchburg and Leominster. This is NOT a liberal bastion. This is the part of MA that bouyed Scott Brown when he was a prospective loser to Martha Coakley.
I’d like to think I was right about the two part shift. Lord knows, I’ve been wrong about every other damn thing I’ve predicted this year.
Oh, and BTW, Elizabeth Warren is now in a dead heat with Scott Brown after having trailed by 5-9 points for the last 2 months.
you are cracking me up, BooMan
They don’t know how to run a national campaign. Romney’s strategy was a campaign about nothing. They thought it would work this time because of the economy or something. But you can’t win a national campaign when you run on nothing and your candidate represents nothing except his own vanity. At the state level, a nothing campaign can work (see Scott Brown’s campaign about his smile and his truck).
OT: It appears another WI politician can’t stay out of IL’s business. Paul Ryan in response to the CTU strike today says that he stands with Rahm Emmanuel.
Rahm has been a pretty awful mayor, it’s doubtful he’ll win another term.
Hey, they both hate Unions. Maybe they should start their own party, except that neither would concede the top to the other.
all I know is, nothing can do more damage to GOP/RMoney’s media blitz than having a juxtaposed Fred Thompson shilling for AAG’s Reverse Mortgage.
I. Chortle. Every. Time.
Crazy Captain Gunboat Willard. He needs to spend more money, I think.
Lets not get cocky. As you know Obama is not a great debater. And he can come off cocky like he did with Hillary.
“Not a great debater”? He was good enough to beat the stuffing out of McCain, and say what you will about the grumpy old coot, but McCain had way more experience, world knowledge, and political skills than Romney does.
I don’t think this president is any danger of coming off as cocky anymore, at least in the near future. The last 4 years have been very humbling. The real danger, in my opinion, is overt anger towards Romney. I think he truly hates him.
Obama is not spectacular in debates, but he makes very few mistakes, and never the same one twice, from what I recall. None after the first few months, in fact. Romney keeps tripping over himself, trying not to be Thurston and just proving that he is, saying things his own campaign contradicts. Plus, he is lying and dissembling all over the place, and keeps avoiding being explicit about anything. I hope Obama studies Clinton on how to expose this, as Clinton treated us all to an expert class.
Problem A for the GOP: Anyone sane and smart has been run off and/or eaten long ago. I’d say as early as 2000.
Problem B: Anyone sane or smart knew even before the 08 election that Obama was a seriously formidable candidate.
Problem C: Anyone sane or smart knew even before the 08 election that the standard GOP policies, positions and talking points were not really going to help nearly any issue facing the country. Deficits? Tax cuts? Isolationist foreign policy? War mongering neocons? Defense of marriage? All major fails or actually irrelevant.
Problem D: Those that actually faithfully remain in the GOP party don’t care about Problems A-C, firstly because they truly believe any and all government is bad and inefficient and secondly because they believe competent government is an oxymoron. Actually being right about policy does not matter. Winning elections so that as much as possible there are NO policies (so that the rich and truly “deserving” actually set policy through a faux “free market” of their design) is the ONLY priority.
So, Mitt, the nowhere, nothing candidate with the money and backing to buy an election is the perfect candidate for the GOP. If is a perfect fit.
And a sure loser.
I sure with that Reid would sit down with the SEIU and discuss unionization of Adelson’s casino. The Democrats need to exact a price from this turd. He hates unions over everything. Work like CRAZY to get revenge against this piece of crap.
Same with the Kochs. That’s the way to exact revenge. Unionize their butts.