Why is Romney flailing so badly?

[yurbud]

The obvious answer is he is an incompetent nitwit and is losing on the merits, but that answer only makes sense if you forget the Crawford Caligula, and the kids gloves the media treated him with.

If he made any of the gaffes Romney has (and he did much worse), it might make it into the news ONCE and then never be mentioned again (if that much).

What is really going on here?

17 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Obama has won the real election, the trust of those who own the media and levers of power, so they are putting stink on Romney to make sure Obama wins
	2 (12%)
	Those who hold the levers of power know it's not safe (or believable) for a Republican to win again yet, so no public love for Romney
	1 (6%)
	Rove and other consultants are intentionally giving Romney bad advice so he won't contest Jeb's annointing in 2016.
	0 (0%)
	The MSM is virulently anti-Mormon
	0 (0%)
	Mitt is incompetent and the MSM is just doing it's job for a change
	5 (29%)
	some combination of the above
	6 (35%)
	other
	3 (18%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Vincardog]

1. He is a Twit with NO social skills pushing failed POLICIES.

[yurbud]

18. all true, but it was also true of Baby Bush and media treated him like the Second Coming of Christ

[Vincardog]

19. That was before their policies had driven the world to the edge of destruction.

[yurbud]

26. he didn't do some portion of that in his first term that would have made him worthy of scepticism by

the media?

[el_bryanto]

2. By the way - Democracy is apparently a Total joke

any of you who think that he's just running a shit campaign? You poor deluded fools. Of course the powers that be have already decided!

I think it's because Romneys strengths and natural inclinations are at such odds with what his base requires he is unable to look comfortable in his own skin.

Bryant

[yurbud]

20. there is some truth to that. Papa Bush had the same problem in '92

He was a Rockefeller Republican, but the Lee Atwater methods that worked in '88 meant he had a base of extra chromosome, Jim Crow nostalgic thugs, that he didn't feel comfortable playing to, probably more as a matter of contempt for regular folks than the morality of fooling the rubes.

[cbdo2007]

3. I picked the second option - I think Romney is just a fill in for a year that

they knew they wouldnt' win anyways. No reputable Repube would want to face President Obama up for reelection anyways (2016 will be the next "real" election) so they just threw Romney a bone so he can make some money selling books and stuff. Nobody in their right mind actually thinks Romney would be a good President, nor that he would do better than any other Repube against President Obama, so there must be something else there deciding this for them.

Also, I think they're allowing Romney to skim some money out of the election fund for himself as his "consolation prize" - just $20 Mill or so.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Mitt is collapsing

under the weight of his own hypocrisy and contradictions trying to hold on to his "base", which would desert him if he tacked to the center too much (or at all for that matter). Not only that but he hasn't been able and/or willing to articulate any bold new policy ideas to contrast with President Obama. How do you get people to dump an incumbent if you don't have any better ideas or solutions- or you won't even talk specifics until you get elected?

[Ganja Ninja]

5. The GOP base.

He's running a race to appease the fanatical right and it has no appeal to other voters.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Because Santorum, Bachmann, Gingrich and Cain forced him to paint himself into a RW corner.

He is unable to run as a "moderate" which means his base is old white guys and nothing else.

[yurbud]

21. they didn't have to paint him there: he had nowhere else to go.

[liberal N proud]

7. Other: Mitt is incompetent regardless that the MSM is just doing what it is ordered to do.

[Jennicut]

8. Mittens is essentially unlikable. One of the most unlikable candidates for higher office

I have ever seen. W was an idiot but he did not have the awkward personality of Mitt. In fact, many reporters liked him. He gave them nicknames and made them feel special.
The media does not like Mitt. He is so out of touch, so robotic, so devoid of anything real that even the MSM cannot stand him. The recent SNL characterization of Romney was so right on. He is just so weird and strange.

[hifiguy]

11. The media will overlook stupidity and even

hypocrisy, as they did with the Little Chimp. They won't overlook being treated like chumps by someone they rightly perceive to be a complete asshole. And Romney is nothing if not a brass-plated, four-door asshole. His unlikability is off the charts, which is somewhat surprising. Most narcissists and sociopaths are able to project a kind of superficial charm. Not Mittwit.

[Johonny]

12. +1

All the polls in 2008 showed this. It was well known that the more people get to know Romney, the less they like him. It's not that a "fear" or unlikable candidate can't win a race, it is just hard to imagine him winning again a likable candidate and one that is the sitting president.

[Jennicut]

14. Exactly. Obama is too likable for such an unlikable man like Romney

to get traction with the voters.

[yurbud]

22. the funny thing was, I think Bush gave them nicknames so he wouldn't have to remember their actual

names.

[flamingdem]

9. other: mitt is a dick n/t

[C_U_L8R]

10. Too many lies

You can't run a campaign on deception.
Eventually Rmoney's lies collapse, and
that appears to be happening now.

And yes. Mitt is a dick.

[yurbud]

24. again, see Baby Bush

none of that mattered then and he was a big liar whose policies had a chance to collapse before he sought reelection, and the press still kissed his ass.

[Lucy Goosey]

13. He thought it would be easy

He thought that the Presidency would be handed to him. He's used to getting everything he wants, and he thought the Presidency would be the same. He thought he could essentially treat the campaign as a beauty pageant - he'd have to go around the country waving and making speeches and looking "Presidential" of course, but nobody was going to expect him to have any substance or consistency or anything like that - he can't believe that "common people" have the nerve to expect policy specifics or tax returns, because he hasn't been used to being asked for those sorts of things.

So he hasn't had specifics, he hasn't had a message other than "Obama is bad", he hasn't really had a plan, because he genuinely believed he wouldn't need one. He really believed he would just take over the Presidency the way Bain took over businesses. That's how it's always worked for him.

[BarackTheVote]

15. He thought all he had to do to win was not be Obama

Therefore, he had no policies in mind, no intention of revealing his incriminating tax records, thought nobody would delve into his history with Bain, the Olympics, and Massachusetts. Basically, he thought he'd just be able to stand there and not look like Obama (i.e., not be black). The more this race becomes about policy and competence, the more ground Romney will lose.

[k2qb3]

16. Mitt is a reflection of the party that nominated him.

Focusing on his personal shortcomings kinda misses the point IMO.

The Reagan coalition that made the modern Republican party possible fractured during the W years.

Mitt has to try to appeal to four or five completely incompatible groups within the GOP just to get the "base". These groups have been fighting over control of the party since the neocons were discredited but none of them have succeeded and the same old crew that the American people overwhelmingly rejected are running Romneys campaign, because they're still the majority in the base of the party.

A big part of the reason the RNC was such a flop is that the R party itself was looking for hope and change. They failed to rebrand and present a credible vision for the future to compete with the Dems.

All of which is IMO a result of the fact that conservatism is a horrible organizational principle to build a political movement around, inherently defensive, obstructionist and doomed to increasing incoherence as the status quo is compromised by inevitable incremental losses. Conservatism is always reactionary, always looking backward. The devolution into bitterness and frustration is simply getting too blatant and Romney is nowhere near talented enough to hold it together.

[XemaSab]

17. Obama has a team of wizards on staff

It's the only explanation for the fact that his opponents just walk into it.

Making McCain choose Palin for a running mate? What a master stroke!

[yurbud]

30. I think the money people saw Palin as a useful idiot like Grover Norquist

said, "We just need someone who will sign the legislation we put in front of them."

The less they comprehend of what they sign, the less likely they will try to actually run things that matter.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. The average Republican voter is a nitwit and they favor arguments that lose on the merits.

Romney is trying to give them what they want but even he is not stupid enough or far out there enough. Romney's flailing is a symptom of the fact that Tea Party ideas are bound to flail and fail.

[yurbud]

25. a friend sent me a disturbing email about the Tea Party at work at the local level

they really just have one idea--cut taxes.

Everything else is meaningless to them.

They are the Khmer Rouge of the right.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

28. I've also heard it repeatedly said that TPs are all about taxes and the deficit

but then I hear self-described Tea Partiers primarily pushing social issues like anti-abortion, school vouchers, anti-gay marriage, etc. To me the so-called Tea Party revolution wasn't anything new at all; just the same old ultra conservatives re-packaging their old prejudices and hatreds. Their visceral racially-based hatred of Obama is an example.

[k2qb3]

31. Tea party was a protest against how "moderate" the GOP had become...

It was rage over McCain losing to Obama and the failures of the Bush administration, in addition to the obvious, which the party and FOX quickly co-opted. Sean Hannity got booed off the first tea-party stage he tried to speak at, a couple months later he was headlining.

Romney getting nominated was a massive failure for the tea party. That faction in the GOP is going to go ballistic when he loses.

[yurbud]

34. yeah, it's hard to tell if it's actually something new. At first I thought it was a way for the GOP

to rebrand themselves after Bush to keep their most rabid supporters in the tent--even if those supporters didn't know they were in or that tents exist.

[KurtNYC]

27. Many reasons -- #1 He's a jerk. An arrogant, lying, smug, smirking jerk.

#2 the GOP never really wanted Romney. They consider him a RINO. The primaries dragged on and on and Mitt just out lasted the others due to his money.

#3 Mitt doesn't fit the cowboy myth thing that the GOP loves in their candidates -- guns, horses, clearing brush on a fake Texas ranch, drinking, swearing, shootin' from the hip.

#4 Many on the Right don't consider Mormons to be Christian. Polygamy and prohibition just aren't as popular as they once were.

#5 "Romneycare is socialism"

#6 The Romneys ran off to Mexico rather than join the USA in 1885. Then they sneaked back over the border in 1912 when things heated up in Mexico and then managed to avoid serving the USA in WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Irag and Afghanistan.

#7 Romney went to France to avoid Nam. Speaks a furr'in language just like a furriner.

[patrice]

29. Those fuckers want to gamble with our investments in Social Security - AND - put all of the

"useless" onto a fast-track into WAR - OR - as in the case of the disabled or elderly, after Ryan kills Medicare/Medicaid, that would be onto a fast-track into ho$$$$pice care, that is, after they are milked for every dollar Rommunism can get out of them for hover-round wheelchairs, security alarm systems, and cable tv packages.

[Javaman]

32. Other...

when the gop run a robot for a candidate, instead of only hilarity ensuing, it was also nothing but fail.

[NotThisTime]

33. He was a lousy Governor, he would be a lousy President, where's the question for people? They need

only look at the debt he left the state and the shrinking number of workers when Companies started leaving the state

[yurbud]

35. I agree with all of the above, but that didn't stop the media from kissing Bush's ass

[bluestate10]

36. Romney doesn't have a core set of ideas that inspire him.

Other than making money and his nuclear family and members of his Church, as long as Romney gives the orders. Obama has his family, close, real friends, his christian faith and a solid set of core principles that make him strive to positively impact all of our lives every day.