Rom-nomi-nee

After yesterday’s New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney is all but guaranteed to be the Republican presidential nominee.

The parallels to 1996 here are hard to ignore; a somewhat weakened chief executive, reeling from bad poll numbers and movement conservatives in the ascendency, a deeply flawed Republican nominee, and a short Texan with a loud, unconventional, populist platform running a likely third party bid, siphoning off conservative votes.

It looks good for President Obama, who has his own problems with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. (Yes, this puts the lie to the whole notion of Obama’s “radical socialism” – a charge none of the Republican candidates would dare repeat to his face).

Gingrich and Santorum went nowhere in New Hampshire, for various reasons. Gingrich is too broken a human, and Santorum is out in left field on social issues. Huntsman’s best chance was in New Hampshire, and he blew it – he’s done. Perry, Gingrich, and Santorum’s last chance is South Carolina; if they can’t convince Bible-belt social conservatives to come out for them over Paul or Romney, it’s over. The analysis from Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight was, as always, most informative.

In his second out of 50 likely victory speeches, Romney assailed President Obama for “apologizing” for America. This is, of course, patently false, and a lie that will come back to haunt Romney. Was Obama apologizing for America when he ordered that Osama bin Laden be shot through the head? Was he apologizing for America when he refused to aid North Africa’s dictators against popular uprising? Was he apologizing for America when he passed the Affordable Care Act, with the promise of affordable health insurance for all? Here’s a list of Obama’s accomplishments, wherein he apologized for no one.

The “apologizing for America” crack is popular with ignorants and cretins, and is code for “socialist“, “Kenyan/Indonesian”, “where’s the birth certificate”, and “black guy”. Romney, whose religious views are sometimes fodder for mocking and dismissal, especially from the evangelicals he so needs, is treading on thin ice. Criticizing Obama for his policies is one thing, but this “apologizing” crack is a racist, xenophobic dog whistle.

Romney also made the choice quite clear – do you vote for the President who wants to create jobs, or the candidate who likes to fire people?

10 comments

  • It’s almost incomprehensible that in a time when folks have been confronted with the hazards of turning over control of the country to the 1%, the Republicans are nominating the 1% poster boy. Reactionary much?

    Just look at the pic that Geek posted yesterday (item 6) of Romney in a Vietnam War protest — protesting FOR it (and AGAINST those hippies and anarchists daring to oppose the established order):
    http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2012/01/10/the-morning-grumpy-1102012/

    Look at that setting, and those he’s surrounded by! He and his circle have never lost their “plaid Bermuda shorts” view of America. You could bring them all back to the same spot, replace “Support President Sterling” with “Support Romney for President,” and they’d still be proclaiming the same things now that were on their signs then.

    “PRESIDENT STERLING”! You can’t make this stuff up!

  • What’s to make up? Wallace Sterling was the President of Stanford University at the time.

  • Romney’s challenge will be to channel all of the anger,distaste, loathing and hate directed against Barack Obama looming within the big “GOP tent” and fashion it into a successful campaign messaging on what he’ll do differently from his contradictory records and statements as a Governor, a Wall St. guy and a “also-ran” presidential candidate.

    That volume of negativity reminds me of that quote from the 1st Ghostbusters film, where the amount of “psychokinetic energy” is equated with a 600 pound Twinkie.

    The response to that quote: “That’s a big Twinkie.”

  • I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before: you guys should be giving money to Ron Paul to make sure he keeps up the fight, and you should be PRAYING (or the non-religious equivalent) that he makes a 3rd party run. That right there is the best guarantee four more years for O.

  • We must do everything we can to defeat Romney, champion of the 1%, and to keep the liberal populist Obama in the White House. Why, if Romney were elected, he would almost certainly choose his economic advisers from Goldman Sachs, his chief of staff from of America. He would probably continue the War in Afghanistan, and continue killing Afghani and Pakistani babies with drone strikes, thus fomenting anti-American tensions. He would probably also engage in covert terrorist war on Iran, and whittle away American civil liberties. He might even be crass enough to grab the right to imprison American citizens indefinitely, with charge or trial.

    Frankly, I’m scared to death! Whatever you do, remember to vote against Robamaney!

  • from BANK OF America, that is

  • Before anyone prays for a three-way race, they had best read the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. Unless Obama pulled 271 electoral votes out of such a race, the fate of the next four years would be decided by state-by-state delegations of the current Wingnutistani House of Representatives.

  • Obama’s a lock, why are all you lefties wringing your little hands and wetting yourselves? Bush’s 4th term is almost here.

  • George Herbert Walker Bush: “Bush 41”
    George W. Bush: “Bush 43”
    Barack Hussein Obama: “Bush 44”

  • Could we just lose the Hussein? It’s old, it’s boring and so yesterday. It just makes looney nuts look and sound loonier. I’m just sayin.

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