The Knives Are Out, and More
Slash and cut…
If you want proof that Mitt Romney still matters in national politics (well, besides the blatant stuff), you need look no further than at all the shots that are being taken at him. Ran into two excellent examples this weekend. One in the British press:
The great thing about Mitt Romney is that he’s so darn subtle. Hence the title for his new campaign* book: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Gee, I wonder what that means?
Romney must be considered the front-runner for the 2012 Republican nomination if only because other would-be candidates have either ruled themselves out (Huntsman), shot themselves in the foot (Palin,
StanfordSanford. [Thanks commenters]) or remain incapable of setting the heather alight even when armed with a can of gasoline (Pawlenty). And since front-runners have won every Republican nomination since 1988 (McCain was unusual in as much as he was a front-runner who slipped and was nearly lapped before staging a comeback which relied heavily upon everyone else demonstrating their inadequacy before the Senator from Arizona could remind voters for a second time of his own short-comings), one would do well to pay attention to what Romney is up to.If this new book is anything to go by, it seems that Romney remains determined to pander to the Republican party’s base.
OK, that phrase “pander to the Republican party’s base” makes me laugh. I know this guy is in Britain and the House of Lords and Monarchy still exist, but it is a democracy and one achieves power by representing the people, not “pandering” to them then doing as one wishes. That’s how revolutions get started. He makes it sound like people on the right are somehow underdeveloped human beings.
But then our own left are not above such things. Consider this comment stream from Salon – buried in there somewhere:
Romney started taking heat about two weeks ago over his Mittcare plan in Massachusetts.
This week, he overtly defended his plan in a USA Today editorial, even as future primary voters took to town halls against its Obamaton cousin.
Even more important, Huckabee unearthed the fact that Mittcare pays for abortions, with a $50 copay. As Huckabee drolly notes in a new web ad, the price of life in Mitt Romney’s universe is now $50 a piece.
This is deadly, if you’ll pardon the pun, for a pro-life primary electorate . . . .
And of course, the spectacle of Romney and Huckabee fighting again like children is almost too rich for consumption.
They expect us to go after each other like a pack of hungry wolves! Of course, the Huckster seems all to willing to accommodate them. We are going to have to be a lot smarter about how we do business this time around – leaving religion in the locker room is, hopefully, one of the ways we will go about doing that.
Fixing The Primaries…
Finally, DATA! Some guys in Michigan got good numbers of “Crossover” voters in the primaries there.
Other Democrats voted in the Republican primary simply to make mischief. Grebner himself, an ardent Democrat as well as Ingham county commissioner, said he voted in the Republican primary in the hopes of helping Republicans nominate their weakest candidate.
Please recall that Clinton was uncontested in Michigan. If it went on in Michigan, what about in other far more crucial, and easier to do it in, states?
But Religious Freedom Still Matters . . .
Even Gordon Brown (speaking of Great Britain) knows that as he is forced to respond to an issue we covered a while back.
And then there is this 2006 op-ed from a Maine newspaper (somehow it just came up on the web-crawling spiders and spies that we use here to try and stay informed this past weekend):
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, after 103 years of working for adoptions, will retire from those services this June rather than accept the state’s mandate. Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, has proposed a religious exemption for the church, pointing out that many other agencies approve adoptions by gay couples. The Boston Globe, as ardently anti-Catholic as ever, sternly reminded him that he is a “governor, not a bishop,” which he probably already knew. The state legislature, believed to be three-quarters Catholic, has refused to grant an exemption, in large part out of fury over the church’s nonchalant handling of the clerical sex scandals.
That paragraph right there proves why it is so important not to cast religiously discriminatory votes. Religious freedom applies to all religion. Mitt Romney defended Catholicism and in so doing, he defended all faiths.
And Finally . . .
An article out of Great Britain discussing lying and the human condition. It attempts to be bi-partisan (yeah, The Guardian tries) by citing examples from both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney. Why those examples? One wonders about the sub-conscious and the effect of the “Mormons lie” meme. However religion plays out in the next cycle it will play out very differently than it did last time. But how often will a mis-speak or a poor memory be interpreted as “a lie” because that little meme was planted in the brain four years earlier? This may get interesting.
Lowell adds: I’m traveling and unable to post much, but this Slate article, “How Is America Going To End? The Catholic Church helped preserve Roman civilization. Can Mormonism do the same for America?” is great entertainment.
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Article VI Blog » Telling The Story – Part II – Why Did Mitt Romney Lose in ‘08? on 15 Sep 2009 at 11:15 am #
[...] comes out of nowhere, with some help from open primary shenanigans, to win New [...]