It’s hard to imagine Mitt Romney not taking the GOP nomination. John McCain will never win over the base and Rudy Guiliani is an emotional timebomb with a walk-in closet full of skeletons and drag gear. Leaving aside his shameless about-faces on every major issue, Romney is the only credible Republican whose philandering hasn’t provoked at least one bitter divorce. If Newt Gingrich makes a serious entry Mitt would still be the only one.
So let’s say that Romney will take the GOP nomination. Like any GOP nominee he might as well stay home f he can’t convince the religious right to turn out for him. Hell, most would say the current president has already made a hopeless goat out of whoever the GOP nominates but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Safe to say that Mitt’s tactics need work.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) did not discuss his Mormon faith as he continued his outreach Saturday to conservative Christians in a graduation speech at Regent University, the school founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.
Instead, Romney, who is intensely courting this key segment of the Republican base in hopes of winning the party’s 2008 presidential nomination, expounded on conservative themes such as the importance of child-rearing and marriage and the presence of evil in the world.
This strategy of pushing the audience’s cultural buttons while sweeping his own spirituality under the rug is the opposite of what Mitt needs to do here. There isn’t a group in America more tired of pandering sound bites that the American religious right. If Romney won’t address the one question that every one of them came looking to ask, which is to what degree Romney’s unfamiliar religion dovetails with their own agenda and to what degree it (inevitably) doesn’t then I don’t see why he bothered to come. It’s not like he needs any help reinforcing his mister cellophane image.
Independents, Reagan Democrats and the John Cole Republicans already plan to vote with their feet while evangelical leaders stand on the edge of dropping their obsessive focus on single issues and a single party. The GOP is cooked if the best they can find is a guy who reinforces every negative stereotype of the pandering, principle-free pol who will forget his religious base by mid-November.
Zombie Santa Claus
Maybe I should run for President on the GOP ticket. I support the War in Iraq, TWOC, the Gold Standard, the Stamp Act, and the auto-da-fe. Pretty standard stuff, more or less mainstream Republican positions. Plus, I can woo the Christian vote very easily, as well as the undead vote (that traditionally leans Democratic in places like Chicago).
Yes, I think I’d make a fine President. Technically, I wasn’t born a US citizen, but since I was alive before America was invented I can probably argue I’m grandfathered in.
Ho ho ho, bitches!
RSA
Romney is perfectly positioned as the target for concern trolling in the Republican base: “Are we really sure that we can vote for an ex-Governor of Massachusetts? Someone who spent two and a half years traveling through France in his teens? Someone whose real first name is Willard?” Okay, maybe the last question gives the game away.
Ousmane
Kinda funny how WaPo’s “( R)” becomes (r), or registered trademark.
Because, you know, Romney’s such a product.
scarshapedstar
This is a joke, right? We’re talking about the braindead automatons who still cream their jeans whenever George Bush — a thieving, murderous charlatan who hasn’t been to church since before I was born — mumbles incoherently about “traditional values”.
Detlef
You forgot to include this “nice” quote:
empty
I read that too. Where did he get this from? Or is France really going the Heinlein way?
Zombie Santa Claus
Not true. He goes to churches all the time, all over the place. That’s where the photo ops are!
Vladi G
This is like saying a drunk is tired of alcohol, or a junkie is tired of heroin. These people live to be pandered to. They might tell you they care about what you do, but in the end, all that really matters with this group is what you say.
The Other Steve
You are joking, right?
As Vladi G said, this is a crowd that wants nothing other than being pandered too.
Andrew
Hey, just like their god does.
merlallen
While Democrats run on platforms that actually help people, the only platforms Repubs have to run on is the sanctity of life and killing “evil” people.
What has happened to the Republican Party? It wasn’t always like this, was it?
scarshapedstar
Of course it wasn’t always like this! See, to find the Republican soul you have to go back to Ronnie Raygun, who governed by the totally different principles of fighting the Evil Empire in Afghanistan, ending abortion, and tax-cut-and-spend militarism…
Wait, maybe that’s a bad example. Really, to see the “old” Republican party you have to go back to Nixon, who espoused a theory of a dictatorial Presidency that could manipulate the justice system at will…
I mean, uh, really you ought to to back to Herbert Hoover, who ignored/exacerbated a recession and drowned a thousand poor black people in south Louisiana…
Sirkowski
Plus ça change…
stickler
Jumping Judas Iscariot:
I share the chortling of commenters upthread. These idiots won’t hear anything BUT pandering sound bites. Hell, that’s what GWB gave them, and still gives them. For these Godbags, the only thing that matters is: “will Mitt appoint raving loons to the Supreme Court?” If yes, and ABORTION!!!!1! becomes illegal, then hey who cares about the Angel Moroni, anyhow?
After all, it’s not like Reagan, GHWB, or W actually did anything to prove they had real faith. Like, you know, joining a congregation. No, it was all show and “character” and all that crap.
stickler
Oh, and Mitt needs to update his soundbites on France. They just elected a guy who actually said that people should either “love France, or leave it.” The dude has been channeling Nixon, fer criminy’s sake.
Pb
Clinton went to church all the time–surely as a phony political calculation. Therefore, what really matters is what’s in your heart*.
* Yes, they love those phony-ass soundbites…
Shochu John
You know what pose I see a lot of these days on blogs. it goes something like this:
[Pick One: Romney/McCain/Giuliani] is going to be the GOP nominee because the other two are unelectable.
I’m starting to think, in every case, that at least the latter part of the sentence might be true.
The Other Steve
He was referring to GW Bush, actually. :-)
I do hope the wingnuts aren’t cheering the election of Sarkozy. Not that I particularly care one way or another, but a hallmark of a conservative in Europe is saying “Go fuck yourself” towards other countries, notably America. Namely, relations with France are likely to get worse, not better.
uh_clem
I just don’t see how the movement Christians, who take theology quite seriously and seek to elect officials who will advance that theology, will rally around someone who is committed to an entirely different theology, i.e. Mormonism.
Sure, the social aspects of mainstream Mormons may dovetail quite well with the 700 Club set, but the theological underpinnings are quite different. Once you start talikng about Nephi, the angel Moroni, and the Jaredites the fundamentalists are going to be heading for the exits.
Zifnab
Fixed.
Seriously, I have begun to doubt whether these “Christians” have ever actually read the Bible or whether they have it spoon-fed to them in such watered-down doses by evangelists – the footswords of Pandaria – that they have forgotten what the book actually says.
If George Bush ever ate a live kitten, I would give it inside a week before some demagogue preacher found a biblical verse to condone and bless his actions.
RSA
The angel Moroni. . .That’s an evocative name for so many reasons: it could be a Latin plural, an Old Country last name, or a new flavor of a San Francisco treat.
stickler
Zifnab:
You’re correct to doubt. Most wild-eyed fundagelicals do, indeed, read the Bible — but in a very selective way. They string together verses from disparate chapters to prove whatever point they want to about America in 2007. The context of their verse-picking is irrelevant to them. I heard somebody say once that their bibles “end at Leviticus and start up again at Revelation,” and I think that’s pretty close to reality. The Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes just don’t get much play from the Dobson/Robertson crowd.
Wilfred
Where they’ll find said exits chained shut, just like their minds. Tim’s right, I think, about Romney getting the nomination. The closer he gets, the more acceptable Nephi et al. will become and any other presumed heresies will just melt into air. Any ideology that can be ‘pro-life’ while defending the carpet bombing of Lebanese children won’t have any problems with magic shorts and oddball angels.
Tom Hilton
That’s a hell of a campaign slogan. Romney should start using it.
Tsulagi
Mitt doesn’t need lessons, he gives them. I doubt there’s a group or position he doesn’t agree with, until he later has a come-to-Joseph-Smith moment agreeing with the opposition. While that quality has served him well in his party, I don’t see him getting the nomination.
While Flipper Romney is cute for many Republicans, he’s not focused. He doesn’t hump the legs holding up the big tent today nearly as well as Rudy.
First Rudy’s going to go after the Purple Heart bandaid patriot warriors with a vengeance. He’s going to 9/11 those suckers so much they’ll be afraid to leave their homes without a colostomy bag as their Depends won’t give them enough protection.
Next up is the Foley/Haggard wing of the party which is huge. Guys like Dobson publicly speak to their flocks in “secret” code which titillates the Rapture nuts no end. Rudy cross dresses. That’s his “secret” code to the Foley/Haggard wing that he’s got their backsides. He may be short, balding, and squint a lot now without his glasses, but Rudy ain’t dumb.
The Pubs might as well give him the cape, scepter, and heels now. Rudy’s their guy for the nomination.
William
Excellent rundown on Romney and his big lead in New Hampshire: http://www.solidpolitics.com
louisms
Nonsense. Conservative christians may be sceptical of liberals pandering to them, but lip service is really all they ask of conservatives. Hell, lip service to religious principles is all they themselves generally give. All they require of fellow believers it that they participate in the circle-jerk of mutual affirmation and reenforcement of their inevitably and perpetually shaky faith in their chosen mythology.
Daniel
Why can’t people understand that this was a commencement speech, not a chance to campaign, or clarify doctrine, or defend his faith. Commencement speeches are about the graduates and last words of wisdom before they go out to the real world, not about the people giving the speeches. If Romney did try to woo voters, he would have been accused of campaigning during a commencement speech. Romney’s education, successful career, and personal life speak for themselves. Regent’s university was lucky to have someone as accomplished as successful as Romney
The Other Steve
Everybody is on the case…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/7/215953/4128
It appears that the seven year contract thing came from fellow Mormon… Orson Scott Card. And Romney’s favorite book is Battlefield Earth. It’s like a trifecta of weird religion and science fiction.
Detlef
empty,
Well, The Other Steve answered that.
L knew that it was wrong because I´m a German. And believe me, German media would have reported such a thing. :)
But really, when I read it I went “huh?”.
First, that speech probably was read and edited by several people. Unless Romney “inserted” it during the speech I have to suspect he and his whole team are either totally incompetent or liars.
What was worse though was the “Washington Post” IMO. They printed it without even a “hint” that it was totally false. If your American media don´t even correct such obvious errors…
John
Daniel, this was not just a commencement speech. I find it highly unlikely that Romney would have been invited to speak were he not running for president. This was a way for Romney to introduce himself to a captive audience without the pressure of having to answer any questions about his beliefs and religion.