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Romney's pivot to the center

Nice post.

I think Romney's trying to spray the center: I guarantee you that the Mormon church is funneling money his way . . .

I think that Romney would have been good about 50 years ago: he just doesn't have the grenoloas to play with the big boys.


Romney has the financial support of Wall Street behind him.
 
for every one Moderate vote he gains, he will lose 5 Conservative votes.

looks like Obama for four more years.

Probably more like a one to two ratio.

The Etch-A-Sketch comment will haunt the Romney campaign.
 
Probably more like a one to two ratio.

The Etch-A-Sketch comment will haunt the Romney campaign.

So will his comment that he is not concerned about the poor.
 
Can Romney simultaneously retain enough of the conservative base while trying to attract moderates that were turned off by his rhetoric during the debates?


"Romney, after all, managed to secure the nomination only by strenuously avoiding friction with the base. On every major issue, he aligned himself with the party’s Obama-era orthodoxy, and when he attacked his GOP opponents, he made sure to do it from their right. This, of course, was in response to conservatives’ built-in suspicions about whether he really is one of them. So far, he’s given them what they want, at least in terms of policy positions. But they’re watching him closely, looking to see if he sells them out to appeal to the middle of the electorate against Obama – and ready to raise hell if he does.

This is producing some awkwardness already, like when Romney said that he wouldn’t go out of his way to get rid of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (what general election voters like to hear) but refused to say whether he would have signed it as president (thus avoiding a position that would put him directly at odds with the base). The overall effect was to reinforce the image of Romney as spineless. Expect to see more of this straddling in the months ahead. Romney faces more pressure than previous GOP nominees to keep his party’s base happy, but he also seems to recognize that fully embracing its agenda will be suicide in the fall."

the weaker party: Romney's pivot to the center

Romney is going to do what every other President elected has done.

He's going to play up to his base in the primary by making extreme campaign promises.

Then he's going to play up to the moderates in the general election by making moderate campaign promises.

And then, if elected, he's going to play up to his biggest campaign contributors by doing whatever they want him to do.
 
OC I wont argue the Kerry point. Obama's problem and most Americans problem is that the economy is a lot worse now then it was in 2004.

True. But at the same time, 2004 didn't have a financial recession coupled with a liquidity crunch.

Obama made statements to the effect that his policies and legislative agenda would correct things. They really have not.

True, but at the same time, it's effectively impossible for any country in history to get out of a financial recession quickly. Countries are doing well if they get back to pre-crisis activity in 6 years. The idea that Obama could get us back in 3 is pretty audacious and entirely ignorant of history. What Obama frankly failed to do in campaigning as well as pushing the stimulus was to be completely honest about just how ****ed up it really is. As I've said before, there are basically two options a first world nation has: export like crazy to build a currency reserve or directly lend via the government to basically anyone. The first one ain't happening and the second leads to bad outcomes. The GOP should be happy McCain lost as we'd be in the same craphole but the Democrats would be the one pounding the GOP for the economy. Neither Kenysian economics or supply side can ever fix a financial recession. All they can do is alleviate some of the pain.

Thats what Romney is going to run on. Hes running against Obama, Obama is trying to run against the GOP more broadly. Both strategies make sense on paper but its a lot easier to target a single person than it is to try to attack a group of people, strawmans abound with that tactic, but Obama hasnt ever been afraid of using those on the campaign trail.

Not so sure about that. The GOP has been deliberately trying to prevent any real economic growth. McDonnell flat out said their #1 goal is prevent his reelection. Not get Americans back to work. Not reduce the debt. Get Obama out. I have absolutely no doubt the GOP is trying to extend the pain to ensure he doesn't get reelected. The GOP has taken obstructionism to a new level. The President does not control the purse strings. What Romney can't really do is run on his own spotty record. Relying on massive government money to turn around Salt Lake isn't a great model. As is his Bain record which is less than stellar in terms of pushing a political agenda. And the fact that Romney basically will do whatever voters want him to do shows complete lack of any spine. I find it endlessly amusing that the GOP who attacked Clinton for not having a backbone just nominated a candidate who makes Clinton look principled. Bush never changed his mind but Romney does it every 5 seconds.

Obama is from Chicago, its how things get framed in Illinois and its why I hate his policies and his brand of politics. No one comes out of the Chicago machine clean. They are all dirty politicians and damaged goods if they rise up through the ranks in Chicago.

Perhaps so, but I still see Obama as little more than Bush's 3rd Term.
 
Well, Clinton did some things right. Budget compromise, welfare reform for example. Then there is Gramm Leach Bliley, which is about the worst thing he did, with tinkering with the housing market being second.
 
"Mitt Romney, his nomination as the Republican U.S. presidential candidate all but assured, has started to woo voting blocs he may have alienated."

"Romney's campaign said President Obama has followed the former Massachusetts governor's plan to bail out the auto industry and said Romney didn't move from his hard stance on student loans when he said he agreed to support a temporary extension of the current rate to prevent it from nearly doubling in July if Congress fails to act."

"Romney is starting to shift to the center. He knows he needs to get independent voters in November and if he doesn't he's going to lose," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said."

"By definition in a general election, you're appealing to a broader audience than in a primary process," Ayres said. "You have to address issues of less interest to primary audiences and of more concern to a general election audience and that's what he's doing."

Read more: Observers see Romney shift to center - UPI.com
 
so tell us-what exactly is Obama given that the left wing hysterics claim he is just like Bush?

I think Obama is a giant step up from Bush. But then so is soaking your head in a bucket of lye.

Speaking of a bucket of lie...

Romney (and by extension, the GOP) is in for a rather unpleasant shock this November when they find out that the American people's collective memory isn't as short as they thought, and all Obama has to do is remind them that things would be FAR better without the obstructionist GOP blocking everything.

You want to know why so much private money is sitting on the sidelines? It isn't because of anything Obama has done or proposed. It's because of the complete lack of certainty and complete failure of the congress to get ANYTHING done. Business is going to continue and be profitable no matter what. That's the way of things if you have competent leadership in business. But business doesn't know what is going to happen, so they're sitting it out until they can be sure. Like my grampa used to say: "$^!+ or get off the pot!"

Romney has been in politics for too long to avoid his past, and a lot of it is on tape. His past is going to hang around his neck like an albatross, and I don't see any way he can sway enough moderates to return to the failed GOP policies of the first decade of this century.
 
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