Hypothesis: Romney doesn't REALLY want to be elected president . . . and he never did.

[skip fox]

Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2012, 11:25 AM - Edit history (3)

(That is, although he thinks he does want to be president, he subconsciously doesn't.)

Possible proofs:

--He filed at least one tax return which, if revealed, apparently would drastically undermine his chances of being elected (and may even expose him to legal action) simply to become richer than he already was.

--He continually undercuts his campaign's possible momentum with gaffs and/or unconsidered actions.

--He appears unable to regain his balance.

--He follows contrary and shifting advice as though constantly discovering a new way to take the helm (e.g., jumping the Cairo shark in the middle of the riots after Republican commentators had urged him to be bold).

--He is unable to stay focused, on message.

--He is absent from the campaign trail for extended periods (most recently for 5 days, which commentates note is rare for this time in the campaign, but sporatically throughout the summer as well, "prepping for debates," he said).

any others?

Or am I just full of it?

[Systematic Chaos]

1. It's not a thing of not wanting it, IMO. Rather, it's about wanting it to come easy...

...like everything else in his sorry life.

Any actual effort required, and you hear Queen Ann yeowling about how "EHRMEGERD, IT'S TOO HEEEEERRRRRD!! SCHTERP IT!!"

[orpupilofnature57]

2. What if between Teabagger millionaires and Diebold

it's a barrel shoot? I don't know about you but the memories of 2000 & 2004 are still fresh in my head. VOTE!!!

[goclark]

6. ditto...

[lunatica]

3. I think he was out-campaigned big time

The Obama campaigned pushed early and hard from day 1 and Romney hasn't been able to get his footing back since then. He had nothing to run on but he wasn't worried because his SuperPACs assured him that he would win. He must have forgotten that as a CEO he had no loyalty to his underlings and that the Fat Cat Donors would leave if he didn't pull his end of the bargain. I bet he's left a few of his underlings out in the cold himself.

It probably never occurred to him that it would be the billionaire donors who would leave him in the lurch.

[oldhippydude]

4. don't think your full of it... but have a slight different hypothesis

first of all i agree with all your observations.. most of his actions are counter intuitive at face value..while playing to his base, he has has seemingly made a conscious effort, to alienate all others.. a risky tactic at best..

as far as his motivation, heres where i venture into tin foil hat territory, first of all the man is an entitled prick... he grew up with a silver spoon, and obviously has no idea of the struggles of others.. he is used to making his own rules, vis a vis matters such as revealing his taxes, and how much time he devotes to his campaign...

while all this is standard stuff for plutocrats.. i think the real difference with Willard is that he thinks God is going to save his ass... he grew up with a belief that someone of the Mormon faith would save the country...and he has arrogantly assumed the mantle..

my guess is that somewhere inside of Romney is the belief that God called him.. a belief not much different than many Christians, that believe the rapture is emanate, and that it will save us from such mundane things as climate change, food shortages and global economic collapse..

[aletier_v]

5. Ive thought the same thing

I think Romney must carry a lot of guilt for his participation in the Great Recession and the lives he ruined to become rich.

[Angry Dragon]

17. If he cared, you would hear different words and a different tone

Ego and money are the only things that drive Willard

[WinkyDink]

21. Sociopaths are INCAPABLE of feeling guilt, shame, regret, etc. INCAPABLE.

[Xipe Totec]

7. Never attribute maliciousness to what can easily be explained by stupidity nt

[safeinOhio]

9. +1

[laundry_queen]

27. Mitt has plenty of both. nt

[enough]

8. He doesn't want to BE president, but he does want to win the title. (nt)

[dballance]

18. I think you are absolutely correct

I don't think he and Ann want to do the job that is really "hard." I think they just want to win the title. If by some weird circumstance he actually wins in November I feel sorry for Paul Ryan and anyone he puts on his cabinet. They will most certainly be running the country, not Romney. If you think W. Bush spent a lot of time on vacation just wait to see how a Romney president would be absent from governing.

[laundry_queen]

28. That's exactly what it is.

See the post about him tripping his daughter-in-law to win a family sport day race. Who the fuck does that? He wants to win, but I bet he'd be exactly like Bush - leave everything, all the hard work, to his 'staff' afterwards.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Yep, as others have said, he's too anal and stubborn to change the way he lives his life - to

do what it takes to be prez.

What is really odd is that in the secret tape, he talks about how the only way he can win is to capture the middle 5-10%

But, he hasn't done anything to moderate his ideology (not that he has one). But he hasn't done anything to falsely appeal to that middle

[skip fox]

11. I'm the same age as Romney (65) and my considerations have changed with age.

I wouldn't want to spend the next four years (much less eight) chained to a clock, protocols, manners, appointments, salutes, lack of freedom, back-biting, hidden motives, twisted personalities, etc.

With less time in front of me I care more about it.

I'm sure Romney has not consciously asked himself the question of if he'd rather be president or enjoy the delicacies of thought, beauty of nature, warmth of family, delight in doing a thing or two well, the intelligence of others, etc., but if age comes with such reflections, weighted in such a way (which seems very natural and normal to me), I'll bet Romney's sub-conscious thoughts have entertained similar queries.

**************************

Bumpersticker du jour: "The World's Answer: Old Age!" (Richard Lapauvre)

[dragonlady]

22. Reflections don't seem to be part of his makeup

In other words, there's no "there" there.

[skip fox]

23. Or he reflects everything, like an empty mirror. (Only nothing seen by human eye.)

[KG]

12. wants the job, doesn't want to do the work. pretty much like the rest of his life.

[lanlady]

13. I beg to differ

He's been campaigning for it, full time, for the past 7 or 8 years. It's just that he thought that he and his billionaire backers could buy the office of president without having to reach out to the unwashed 47%. Plus, instincts tell me that there's one or other Mormon prophesy about one of their own becoming president and ushering in some kind of Age of LDS Aquarius. In other words, Mitt feels a sense of... enlightenment, and destiny.

[grantcart]

14. In March I predicted he would run a lackluster campaign;he wasn't really running for President, . .

He is running to become the 4th most important man in Mormonism.

And even if he loses he knows that 200 years from now Mormon children will be studying about his life and wonderful contribution in helping to make Mormonism more acceptable and appear to be more 'normal'.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002436216

[TeamPooka]

35. So he's their Al Smith? My grandfather was for Smith because he was...

an Irish Catholic

[bemildred]

15. He certainly has a talent for self-sabotage.

And that is rather inconsistent with his past life.
But incompetence and naivete are also definitely on the table with him too.

[Angry Dragon]

16. He wanted it handed to him

When Bain and Company started Bain Capital Willard said he would take it if he was guarateed any pay raises he would have received by staying at Bain and Company and if it failed he would get to come back at his previous position. A man that does not like going out without a safety net .............

However, he has no problem letting everyone else lose theirs............

[skip fox]

19. And today, he's in California trying to get money not in Wisconsin trying to get votes (like Obama)!

Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2012, 11:04 AM - Edit history (1)

As well as being the only thing he truly understands, money is Romney's comfort food. Thus when he feels his campaign in trouble and dark days swirling around, raindrops stinging the head, etc., he reaches for his mac-&-cheese.

The point is he's doing anything to avoid going directly after votes.

Can you imagine the frustration of his campaign staff? What must they be saying? ("How does that stupid sack-of-sh*t expect us to win if he won't campaign?" )

[WinkyDink]

20. His sub-conscious will out. BUT Mitt FIRMLY believes he is to fulfill the Mormon Theocracy prophecy.

[HopeHoops]

24. Sorry, Skip, but you're full of it. He feels entitled to the job. So does "It's our turn" Botox Ann.

It isn't about the position. It's about his ego. He doesn't have a chance and he knows it, but he'll keep going as he has for 40 years or more. The only way he can win is if ES&S (formerly PES, a division of Diebold) rigs the machines. But the exit polls will contradict such results and it will go to the USSC. The shrub was never elected.

Every fucking POS and ATM in the country produces a paper receipt. The machines should have a rolling paper trail with a serialized voting number and each voter should get a paper receipt with that number and their votes. It's a fraction of the cost of the machine. Hell, 30 years ago I was programming receipt printers. They aren't expensive and they ARE reliable. If you ask a non-receipt machine for the results in a recount, you'll get the same (and potentially hacked) results every time. There's no way to verify the accuracy.


Sorry to burst your bubble, but the voting process is not legitimate now. We still need to vote, but we also need to push for physical paper trails that can be used for recounts. By the way, absentee and provisional ballots are useless. Neither are counted until after the election and by then the call has already been made - that includes deployed troops. Those votes never factor into the declared winner's claim to the position. They DO factor in on the local and state level, but not at the federal level.

[M_M]

25. Maybe he's just a Screwup

[chowder66]

26. He just wants the keys to the house

so he can shit on the floor and leave a message for the rest of us... from him and his big buddies.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

29. Disagree on one point.

It is not that he shifts from one advisor to another. Instead, I don't think he follows anyone's advice. Except his own.

[Jennicut]

30. Oh he wants to be President and all the power that comes along with it.

He just thought in his entitled way that it would be so much easier. He also has no core beliefs (he is a venture capitalist, after all). So it comes across like he doesn't give a crap about anything. He does like privilege and the highest office in America is the Presidency.

[AnnaLee]

31. He's hoping to prove that you really can buy an election.

If he pulls this off despite his appearance of trying to lose it will be because of the money and we will see that money at the end when it is too late for Obama to respond.

It's chilling to think I have lived for 63 years under the illusion that "we the people" was people. If Romney wins it will be because "we the people" is code for money.

[XemaSab]

32. He wants to be president like a 5-yo wants to be president

He sees the private jets and the state dinners and everyone bowing and scraping and saluting and the band striking up "Hail to the Chief" and the adoring crowds and all the razzmatazz...

...but he doesn't see the early mornings, the late nights, the long hours, the horrible meetings where you get briefed on something and you're like "OMG, I have no idea what to do here," the pressures of the job that you can't even tell your wife about, the assholes in congress, the Secret Service there every time you just want to go in the bathroom and read the paper for 15 minutes, the knowledge that every time you open your mouth to say something half the country is going to call for your blood....

It's not a job I would want, that's for sure.

[MineralMan]

33. Oh, I think he wants to be President,

so he can live in the White House and get followed around by the media and become part of history. I don't think he wants to BE President, though.

His current string of absences from the campaign are due to his abject failure to raise and maintain a following and to his penchant for moronic gaffes when he does show up. President Obama is drawing great crowds of smiling people who are cheering for him. Romney draws sullen groups of people who haven't cheered for anything in years. One is good press. The other is not.

At this stage in the campaign, he knows he will not win the election. But, he's in for the campaign, and can't withdraw without looking like a complete ass. The only way he could withdraw would be for some dire health issue. Now, he make fake something like that if it looks like he will be utterly humiliated.

Dude has bitten off a large chunk of crap he can't chew up. It's not going to get better for him, and he knows it. The debates will be debacles.

Romney's toast in 2012. How dark that toast gets depends on how high the knob on the toaster has been turned. I'm guessing that they'll be scraping off charred particles for a long, long time after November.

[ProSense]

34. Worst. Candidate. Ever.

He's so bad that it has to be intentional?

[DonCoquixote]

36. something few people bring up

W. wanted to be Prez, but hated the job, thus Dick Cheney did it.
Anyone think Dick is not tuning up his guitar for the next four years?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

37. He's like a dog chasing the car. He has no idea what to do if he ever catches it.

He doesn't really want to catch it, anyway.