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Romney's pivot to the center

Catawba

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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
 
If Romney is to move to the center he would be moving more conservative....
 
How do you find all this crap?
 
You don't think it will be a challenge for Romney to both retain his conservative base and attract moderate voters?
 
You don't think it will be a challenge for Romney to both retain his conservative base and attract moderate voters?
Sure, he's going to get some moderate support, probably more than Obama. That will depend on if he can manage to make himself look somewhat honest about what he is talking about. AND... He does have to garnish a strong amount of conservatives who believe in him enough to vote for him. There are more such as myself who are ready and willing to not vote for the guy who has any real chance of beating the democrat if by doing so we sell our souls to the devil. What is the point of voting in a GOP candidate who more or less will do exactly what the democratic candidate will? Party means zilch to me if the actions are the same. More and more conservatives are feeling this way, so yeah, it will be a challenge for him.
 
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

Pivot... and fire openly gay staffer because homophobic far-right radio host says so...

Pivot to center, FAIL.
 
You don't think it will be a challenge for Romney to both retain his conservative base and attract moderate voters?

romney is already seen as a flip flop and a sellout by both groups,i think overpandering is going to scare everyone away from him by november except the anyone but obama crowd.
 
Pivot... and fire openly gay staffer because homophobic far-right radio host says so...

Pivot to center, FAIL.

Lets get specific do you mean: Fischer, Francks, Bauer or Perkins.

Pick one. I want specificity. Of those, only 1 has enough pull to cause concern for the Romney camp and thats Bauer.
Richard Grenell Flap Had 'Blown Over,' Mitt Romney Campaign Staff Thought

Around the same time, Gary Bauer, the founder of American Values, became the most serious political figure on the Christian right to publicly criticize Grenell's hiring. Bauer wrote in a letter to supporters that he worried that Grenell's hiring might signal some support by Romney for gay marriage. But he added, "We should not exaggerate this. Homosexuals were part of the Reagan Administration and the Bush Administrations. Our concern is policy."

In a Wednesday interview with HuffPost, Bauer said, "I never called for [Grenell] to be replaced and I think the most important thing here is the policies."

Go recycle your "Romney is an extreeeeeeemist" talking points somewhere else.
 
Romney is an extremist in the same way he's a moderate, and a leftist for the sole reason that Romney is inherently nothing.

so tell us-what exactly is Obama given that the left wing hysterics claim he is just like Bush?
 
Romney isnt doing anything any other person campaigning for president does...they position themselves where they believe they can win...."BOTH" Obama and Romney are headed dead straight for the middle...because thats the only way you can win a national election.
Hate to break this to you True Liberals and teapartiers...most of the country do not either of you very much.
 
Not sure who didnt see this coming. Perhaps people who werent paying attention in the first place. Romney is a mderate--you know, that type of person that liberals usually hail as the ideal--who moved to the right during the primary. Ideologically, he is a right leaning centrist, which makes him perfectly in tune with most Americans.
 
so tell us-what exactly is Obama given that the left wing hysterics claim he is just like Bush?

Because those people are ignorant and stupid. Obama is little more then Dubya's Third Term. Obama has enacted less regulations then Dubya did.

A great many people here have no actual understanding of the ideological spectrum. We have more then a few geniuses here who think that China is Communist and that free market insurance exchanges is a form of socialism.
 
Obama has enacted less regulations then Dubya did.

Ahem the ones he has enacted have been more costly. Because they have a wider effect. Energy and Health Care touch on the entire economy, raising those costs screws everyone.
 
Pivot... and fire openly gay staffer because homophobic far-right radio host says so...

Pivot to center, FAIL.

I don't believe he fired him. I believe he quit and Romney wanted him back.
 
Ahem the ones he has enacted have been more costly. Because they have a wider effect. Energy and Health Care touch on the entire economy, raising those costs screws everyone.

Dude. Obamacare hasn't even been fully enacted. The big stuff has yet to actually come into force. You're saying that laws that are not in effect are costing money. Furthermore, how do you know the costs are actually higher? What I never see from detractors of Obamacare is the alternative cost senario. No one in their right mind says Obamacare is cheap. But what people like you never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do is compare it to simply doing nothing. I don't see how leaving a system that penalizes responsible people doesn't screw everyone as it is. Right now people and companies who pay for their insurance have some of their premimums used to cover the cost of the uninsured. We've socialized the costs without going through Congress. The system right NOW screws everyone over by forcing higher premiums and raising costs on everyone else to cover the uninsured. Furthermore, Obamacare should reduce long term costs as it moves towards prevention rather then managing diseases. Our screwed up healthcare system pays for treatment, meaning it is in the provider's best interest for people to get as many diseases and as sick as possible as their payout is highest. That's pretty damn perverse and it screws everyone by forcing higher costs to pay for such treatments. I really don't see how reasonable people think how our current perverse system which wants sick people is actually cheaper than a prevention based healthcare model.

If you can't figure what is happening now, how can you really talk about healthcare?
 
Dude. Obamacare hasn't even been fully enacted. The big stuff has yet to actually come into force. You're saying that laws that are not in effect are costing money. Furthermore, how do you know the costs are actually higher? What I never see from detractors of Obamacare is the alternative cost senario. No one in their right mind says Obamacare is cheap. But what people like you never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do is compare it to simply doing nothing. I don't see how leaving a system that penalizes responsible people doesn't screw everyone as it is. Right now people and companies who pay for their insurance have some of their premimums used to cover the cost of the uninsured. We've socialized the costs without going through Congress. The system right NOW screws everyone over by forcing higher premiums and raising costs on everyone else to cover the uninsured. Furthermore, Obamacare should reduce long term costs as it moves towards prevention rather then managing diseases. Our screwed up healthcare system pays for treatment, meaning it is in the provider's best interest for people to get as many diseases and as sick as possible as their payout is highest. That's pretty damn perverse and it screws everyone by forcing higher costs to pay for such treatments. I really don't see how reasonable people think how our current perverse system which wants sick people is actually cheaper than a prevention based healthcare model.

If you can't figure what is happening now, how can you really talk about healthcare?

So youre actually trying to say that Doctors want people sick so they can soak payments. Yeah I dont think that logic model flies. Doctors tell people all the time what they can and should do to improve their health on a day to day basis.
 
So youre actually trying to say that Doctors want people sick so they can soak payments. Yeah I dont think that logic model flies. Doctors tell people all the time what they can and should do to improve their health on a day to day basis.

But doctors and healthcare providers are largely paid per treatment. If a doctor or provider has no one come in, they go bankrupt. Furthermore, remember that many doctors work for hospitals, they don't run their own business. This is partially my generation's fault as we get more off time, but whatever. The number of doctor run operations is declining and more of a corporate style healthcare where doctors are employees is on the rise. They don't make money from preventive medicine. They make money on treatments. The more treatments the more they get paid. This is seriously perverse outcome from how we do insurance in America.

What is interesting to me is people like you seem to be unaware that the costs are already being socialized. We're already getting screwed by the payments to cover the uninsured. What Obamacare does it make it more transparent. The good thing about Obamacare is that it at least forces some of the uinisured to cover their own costs. The GOP alternative (aside from Ryan's idiotic plan which results in a China like domestic market) is basically do nothing about the uninsured and keep penalizing responsible people and companies.
 
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So youre actually trying to say that Doctors want people sick so they can soak payments. Yeah I dont think that logic model flies. Doctors tell people all the time what they can and should do to improve their health on a day to day basis.

That's generally not how it works, though it does happen (doctors are people like anyone else). Mostly how it works is that doctors really want to do everything possible to insure that their patients do well, so they order lots of tests and treatments that probably aren't necessary ... just to dot all the i's and cross all the t's -- figuring, "why not, the insurance company's the one who's going to pay, and who gives a **** about insurance companies?" And if they make more money by being overly cautious, well that's just icing on the cake, right?
 
for every one Moderate vote he gains, he will lose 5 Conservative votes.

looks like Obama for four more years.
 
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

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.
 
That's generally not how it works, though it does happen (doctors are people like anyone else). Mostly how it works is that doctors really want to do everything possible to insure that their patients do well, so they order lots of tests and treatments that probably aren't necessary ... just to dot all the i's and cross all the t's -- figuring, "why not, the insurance company's the one who's going to pay, and who gives a **** about insurance companies?" And if they make more money by being overly cautious, well that's just icing on the cake, right?

None of that is insurance mandated practices for malpractice avoidance, is it? Most doctor's offices care a great deal about insurance companies, they have to work with them every day to get paid. Your assumptions about the working relationship between insurance companies and doctors' offices is terrible in its ignorance.
 
for every one Moderate vote he gains, he will lose 5 Conservative votes.

looks like Obama for four more years.

Hard to say. Remember this is starting to resemble 2004. Few people actually liked or wanted Kerry. Notice that here very few people are actually pro-Romney. It's essentially turning into an Anyone But Obama campaign for the GOP. Romney is not one of them and they likely realize it. But they want Bush III, I mean Obama out so badly they'll just vote for him no matter what he does.

Romney is the Republican version of Kerry.
 
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. Obama made statements to the effect that his policies and legislative agenda would correct things. They really have not. 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.

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.
 
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