The stenographers at the Politico have a look at what they claim is the Romney general election strategy:
Mitt Romney and his top aides are building a strategy, partly by design and partly because of circumstance, around what they consider John McCain’s disastrously run campaign in 2008.
The strategy: Whatever McCain did, do the opposite.
Many of the current strategy discussions are centered on not falling into the traps McCain did: looking wobbly as a leader and weak on the economy in the final weeks of the campaign. The private discussions include ruling out any vice presidential possibilities who could be seen as even remotely risky or unprepared; wrapping the entire campaign around economic issues, knowing this topic alone will swing undecided voters in the final days; and, slowly but steadily, building up Romney as a safe and competent alternative to President Barack Obama.
McCain, according to Romney advisers, blew it on all three scores. And of the three, the most conscious effort by Romney’s team to do things differently will be in the vice presidential selection process. One Republican official familiar with the campaign’s thinking said it will be designed to produce a pick who is safe and, by design, unexciting — a deliberate anti-Palin. The prized pick, said this official: an “incredibly boring white guy.”
Two things- one of the firm beliefs in wingnut circles is that McCain lost in part because he didn’t take the gloves off. You all remember smug shitbird Michael Goldfarb babbling on CNN about Rev. Wright, and it is just the received view in the GOP ranks that they ran too clean of a campaign. Stop lauging. So expect this to become a very, very ugly campaign.
Second, they already have a boring white guy on the ticket. Do they really want another?
Sad_Dem
Obama is counting on these fools to spend their millions to show voters just how mean-spirited they are.
David Hunt
They want two boring white guys on both of the tickets. However, I seriously doubt Obama will oblige them…
Omnes Omnibus
Do they have any interesting white guys?
redshirt
Two boring white guys = ONE EXCITING TICKET!
Martin
Can you be your own VP? I didn’t think that was allowed.
Scott S.
I can’t imagine them going with a boring white guy. They’re addicted to spectacle and stupidness — they’ll nominate a lunatic because the media and their base will moiderize them if they don’t.
dollared
Second: yes, yes they do. Desperate country want rich white daddy.
Jeff Fecke
Stephen Colbert was right. Nobody could possibly be more boring that Romney himself. He should run with his shadow.
Richard
Play that funky music, white boy.
cervantes
Not just boring, mind you — incredibly boring. It would seem to come down to Mitch McConnell, I guess.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, Rush would help with the Florida vote. Lets try and sell Romney on that pick.
Redshift
Sometime last week, McCain gave his advice on the VP pick, which is that the most important thing is to pick someone you trust. Talk about fighting the last war…
BGinCHI
I thought Romney was going to do the poly-VP thing, with multiple VPs. No?
Why wouldn’t he do that? There are so many white dudes who could help him dismantle our national prosperity.
Cluttered Mind
It’s going to be hard to find a suitable boring white man to complement The World’s Least Interesting Man at the top of the ticket, that’s for sure.
dmsilev
I thought the GOP was opposed to human cloning.
Oh, wait, *human* cloning. Right. Carry on, then.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: That is interesting.
ETA: If by interesting you mean vile and disgusting. Do you think the guy from the Dos Equis commercials is a Republican? A fictional character cannot be any worse than their real options.
pragmatism
you can’t tell a flip flopper: “do X” or “do the opposite of what Y did”. that takes away his ability to shake the etch a sketch.
Redshift
This is my favorite bit:
Romney never does anything he sees as “remotely risky.” The problem is, when you’re running against an incumbent president, that can only work if you assume that people already don’t like him and don’t want him to be reelected. Given the general incompetence of the Romney campaign in any area other than money-bombing opponents, I think it’s a tossup whether they’re dumb enough not to realize that, or whether they do realize it and the Bubble has convinced them that it’s in the bag if they just don’t screw up.
Tokyokie
@Jeff Fecke: Except his shadow isn’t white.
Ben Franklin
Mitt is a control freak and organizized, and did not get along with the
deck-clearing McCannon.
Imagine his response to Paul hijacking the Convention…
RossinDetroit
If Romney just failed to pick anyone at all, who would notice? The sight of the guy already puts people’s brains into flatline. They could just run a cardboard cutout of a stock photo of a white dude in a suit and say he’s unavailable to take questions. Convince me that the press would call them on it as long as the spokespeople kept feeding them ‘quotes’.
BGinCHI
@Ben Franklin: If Team Romney puts some free video games in the lobby of the hotel, none of the Paul glibs will get past them.
eric
I think the best evidence that McCain-Palin ran a “clean” campaign is that they never called Obama a near….this go-round, those “independent” ad-meisters are gonna come pretty darn close in the north and, they are “bull connor” obama in the south.
PaminBB
What, no red meat for the base? Maybe Joe the not-plumber is available.
Suffern ACE
I’m going with Taggart as the option. This is a patrician so why shouldn’t the son be the VP pick.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, Rush isn’t boring, let’s put it that way.
Suffern ACE
OT. Sullivan has excerpts form John Derbyshire’s column at his new place. I’m not linking, but I’m sure someone will soon.
jl
Thanks Cole. Two out of three seems like good news for the Democrats. Yes, I said it, something can be good news for the Democrats.
Boring VP pick. Nice. Very disciplined campaign with focus on easing ‘managerial stress’. Yes, I like it. Right lessons from McCain, too bad Romney is the wrong person to benefit from those lessons.
And the bad news is that Romney luurrrves to raise lots and lots of money, hob nobbing with big money people wheeling and dealing about big money to get big money kind of turns him on.
But, is that news? No it is not news. but he will have more money, and the more he parties hard with his own super rich kind, the more he will be out of sight and not able to sabotage himself with the voters.
So, two out of three is not bad.
BGinCHI
This is awesome covered in awesome sauce:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/14/1090839/-The-Austerions
Tom Tomorrow on Austerity.
ETA: Bonus: Krugman gunned down by raygun (pun).
Ben Franklin
@BGinCHI:
The entire Diorama should be put in a time capsule for future generations.
I feel like a kid in a candy store.
Martin
@Tokyokie: I don’t think Romney casts a shadow, to be perfectly honest. Or a reflection for that matter.
kindness
Yo Romney….I hear Dick Cheney is free. Go ahead and push him for the VP spot.
I mean, what could go wrong?
Redshift
@Scott S.: I think they’re onto something there. The first rule of VP picks is not to pick someone who outshines your presidential candidate, because it makes him look weaker (and you gain nothing, because nobody actually votes based on the VP candidate.) It would actually be a sound strategy if Romney wasn’t so boring and unlikeable — if you find yourself thinking you need an exciting VP pick, you’re already losing badly.
dmsilev
Could it be argued that, given Romney’s penchant for taking two sides on every issue, that he comprises multiple personalities and hence is qualified to be his own VP?
Sort of a Gollum/Smeagol dichotomy if you will. With the Presidency as the Precious.
mai naem
Y’all realize this thread is reaching TBogg quality snark?
In another news, Biff Romney was booed off the stage in some Arizona Teabagger Event. What I want to know is why Biff was not at the Romney Casa in La Jolla worshipping at the mantle of Anne Romney on Mothers Day?
Teddy's Person
The only anti-Palin option is a boring white guy?? This is the “Palin Problem” in the conservative worldview? It’s not that she is proudly stupid, but that she’s a woman. This is as insulting and ridiculous as thinking Palin would get the “woman vote” in the first place. Fuck, today’s conservative politicians and operatives are seriously (fill in the blank – I don’t have the words).
Savage Henry
This is a very confusing approach because 1) they aren’t runnnig against 2008 Obama. He’s been POTUS for 4 years. I think its a little late to campaign someone as the “safe alternative” to the sitting President; 2) you don’t beat an incumbent with significantly higher favorables than you by playing it safe. They already have the old white guy vote locked up. Why build your campaign around them?
I’m happy to say that this “strategy” as an own goal for Mitt.
Anonymous At Work
Re: McCain’s VP pick. Palin wasn’t chosen because she would shake things up, or that she wasn’t a boring old white guy. It was because she was pure red-meat to fundamentalist base that was unknown enough nationally to (hopefully) not scare the non-fundamentalists away. By all accounts, McCain wanted to pick Liebermann but was told “no” by his advisers.
The proper anti-McCain here would be realize that the fundamentalists will ALWAYS distrust Romney and to pick whom Romney himself wants. Granted, that depends on Romney having any desires, principles, etc outside of what his pollsters tell him is “in”.
Turgidson
@Suffern ACE:
Whoa, I never bothered to notice that was his son’s name. Do we know if that’s a shout out to Atlas Shrugged?
BGinCHI
@Savage Henry: I love how one of their opening moves was “Obama was never vetted.”
Um, yeah, good luck with that, dipshits.
jl
Except, I think maybe Romney camp learned wrong lessons from McCain.
Like Bush II, even a miserable old fraud like McCain had some good sides, and decent impulses.
I do not see how being loose and improvisational hurt McCain at all. Except in the VP pick.
But elsewhere? I think what hurt McCain deeply was that, aside from VP, was that during financial panic he revealed that he did not have the slightest idea about what was going on or how to handle a crisis like that.
But that was an unfortunate substantive issue that McCain could not have corrected unless he had practiced the habit of, you know, larnin’ stuff over a considerable period before the election. Not sure whether being more disciplined would have made much difference. So it is a different issue.
But, bad news for the press. Prospects of good tire swing, roast corn on the cob and BBQ look a lot dimmer fir this campaign. I pity the press on the bus, they will suffer.
Edit: and problem with VP was not that Palin was ‘daring’ except in very tired CW Polico kind of way (Wow! A purdy girl!). She was not properly vetted, and largely an unknown quantity. I remember that her rep, even in places like the GOS, was a moderate conservative. That was before the teabagger astroturf plot was hatched, which was the (Edit: corporate sponsored) populist energy that allowed Palin to truly find her crazy true self.
Martin
@Teddy’s Person: Look, if you put an unsupervised woman in the VP slot – particularly a non-white one, they’re just going to go off and abort the unwanted states like Oklahoma out of convenience.
murakami
Paul Ryan is the only rational choice. Plays well for most the base. Makes the oligarchs thrilled. The media loves him. Romney’s already going to have Obama’s team attacking him over economic fairness issues so the addition of Ryan and his baggage won’t hurt much.
piratedan
@Martin: well it would allow the Romney ticket to be both for and against any position that comes up, for example, Romney the VP disapproves of gay marriage but Romney the Presidential candidate approves of it. It allows them to cover every position on the map for the next election. Based on past experience Republican candidates laugh at any kind of political paradox.
Teddy's Person
@Martin: This is an awesome thought, I can’t stop chuckling about aborting Oklahoma.
ET
Of course the want another boring white guy on the ticket. First, they don’t want to upstage the Mittster and secondly they are firmly convinced that “real Americans” want the next president to be white because only whites can/should run the government.
4tehlulz
ALAN FUCKING KEYES FOR VP
jl
Anyway, will sleep easier tonight knowing that chances are higher that a boring white man or a granny starving white guy wingnut more likely to be GOP VP pick.
Calouste
Incredibly boring, risk-free, white guy? I don’t even think there are that many options there. Rubio isn’t white enough. Christie isn’t boring or risk-free. Pawlenty has this bridge problem. Huckabee has the Maurice Clemmons problem, and isn’t boring enough. Perry’s too stupid. Lots of others, Portman the most prominent probably, were involved with the administration of he-who-can’t-be-named-in-conservative-circles. Huntsman is probably boring enough, but it would present an excellent opportunity for Team Obama to do some ratf#cking about how Romney will only appoint Mormons.
4tehlulz
@Martin: You’re making me reconsider my vote for Obama.
Teddy's Person
@murakami: Honestly, how would you tell them apart? Mitt could sneak off to a super secret island leaving Ryan in charge, and I don’t think anyone would notice.
peggy
@Jeff Fecke:
Romney doesn’t cast a shadow; shape-shifters don’t.
RossinDetroit
The ideal Anti-Palin would be a male, non-white, and have a brain. Unfortunately the intersection of those characteristics with the GOP yields a null set.
mai naem
@4tehlulz: OMG, you liberals never pay attention – he said White Not a White WannaBe.
Culture of Truth
Obama is a known quantity. Saying “he never ran anything!1!” kind of misses a big thing he’s running right now. Sure, it has great appeal — to wackos who already hate Obama.
For any kind of appeal to independents, they have to build Romney up into some kind of economic savior with the ethics of a boy scout and the steel of George Patton. Stranger things have happened.
Teddy's Person
@Calouste:
When did stupid become a deal breaker?
Steve in DC
McCain was boned that year no matter what happened. People were sick of eight years of war, the economy fucking cratered hard. The Democrats could have run a ham sandwich and they would have won. The Palin pick made things worse, but the race was over the instant the economy collapsed.
catclub
It is interesting to get the Romney camp to admit that they are fighting the last war.
McCain was unsteady when the economy looked really rocky.
Romney looking steady when the economy is pretty smooth ( even if not great) does not work. He needs to be ‘the change we need’ or some such.
I have still never heard any reason besides ‘Obama sux’ given by Romney to vote for him. Does he want to _DO_ anything if he is elected? besides repeal things passed under Obama.
Nellcote
Isn’t Rmoney required by his faith to pick a Mormon?
MattF
Boring white guy… How about Gerald Ford? He’s dead, so there’s even a “Just like Ronald Reagan” angle.
Lolis
Romney using Reverend Wright opens himself up to far more damning attacks against him and his religion. After all, Romney was a high-ranking, influential person in the church so he can’t run away from it. I think that is why Romney will avoid anything dealing with Reverend Wright, and so will the Super PACS.
Steve in DC
@RossinDetroit
Jindal, Rubio, Daniels….
They do exist. But they all have other problems. Jindal comes off as a wimp, Rubio has legal problems, and Daniels wants nothing to do with Romney.
catclub
@murakami: Mostly agree, but having two giant egos on the ticket — and Paul Ryan is so modest that everyone _knows_ how big his is, will be rejected by Mitt.
Mitt would instantly be second fiddle on his own ticket.
Ryan would be the authority on the Ryan plan that Romney has adopted as his own. I saw on Tapped that all choices of VP for Romney have serious downsides. No matter who Romney picks he will think that he will be attacked for downsides of the chosen VP.
Schadenfreudelicious.
Soonergrunt
They need a more boring white guy than Romney. Problem with that is that you cannot nominate and run a dead guy. If the candidate dies during the campaign, that’s one thing, but they can’t get caught doing it intentionally.
So, what’s Jim Bunning or Fred Thompson doing these days?
lacp
UNLEASH FRED THOMPSON!!!!
catclub
@Lolis: “and so will the Super PACS”
Funny how the non-coordination between SuperPACs and campaigns works out so … um… coordinated.
Rhoda
I am praying they go for Paul Ryan and that he accepts; they would lose the house and fail to take back the senate.
Hurling Dervish
This must be good news for John McCain.
catclub
@Soonergrunt: Richard Lugar is available – and he has foreign policy experience!
Of course, he is 6 years older than John McCain …
and 50 years older than Obama.
Ben Franklin
@catclub:
will be rejected by Mitt
Ryan seems very plausible. Is this instinctive, on your part?
EIGRP
Isn’t that the Costanza strategy?
catclub
@Ben Franklin: I reserve the right to be wrong on the internet.
mai naem
Seriously, I think there’s a lot of boring white guys. There’s Bob McDonnell, Tom Corbett, Mike Dewine, Tommy Thompson, Jim Tallent, Haley Barbour, the Nebraska and Wyoming governors, John Thune, Sam Brownback. I think he should go with a white CEO – there’s Meg Whitman but shes got the Mormon problem but Scott Mcneally, Michael Dell, Andy Grove and Jeff Bezos are supposed to be big wingnuts. And seriously again, I think a “two CEOs to fix all of America’s economic woes” slogan would give Obama a run for his money.
Roger Moore
@Teddy’s Person:
Well, say what you will about Palin, but she sure as hell wasn’t a boring VP pick. Dumber than a post and crazier than a shithouse rat, yes. Boring, no. What they mean is that they want an apparatchik, which in the Republican party presumably means a white dude.
Ben Franklin
@catclub:
I’m not keeping score. Was interested in knowing the reasons.
FlipYrWhig
@Soonergrunt: My hunch is still that Romney is going to pick someone who isn’t a politician. Maybe it’ll be someone like Gen. Stanley McChrystal or Tom Monaghan, wingnut founder of Domino’s Pizza.
Stooleo
How about a loaf of white bread? Seriously, its the only thing I can think of that doesn’t outshine Romney. Yes, even whole wheat bread would outshine Romney.
And the slogans write themselves “Vote for Romney, get a catsup sandwich”
FlipYrWhig
@mai naem: I didn’t see yours when I posted. I have a similar thought about Romney’s running on the meta-theme of being a titan of business.
Linda Featheringill
I nominate Rob Portman. I live in Ohio and have no blessed idea what the man looks like. How interesting can he be?
ETA:
Looked him up on Wiki and I’m still not impressed.
Turgidson
@Lolis:
The SuperPAC affiliated with him might stay away from Rev. Wright, but I’m pretty sure the Rove superPAC will at least take a whack at it and see if it’s effective – and if they think it is, the gusher will open. Ultimately I don’t think it would move the needle. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try. They’ll try everything at least once this year.
murakami
@catclub:
I’d still say Ryan is the best possible choice. Not that he’s necessarily a good choice but the bench is limited.
I think Ryan would be fine playing second fiddle and being humble enough. He would have every incentive to do so since accepting this nomination would give him a clear position in the Republican line of succession, and within an election year or two it would be his turn.
Jay C
Jeez: the Mittster and his crew are really setting themselves up for an uphill climb here, it seems:
The private discussions include ruling out any vice presidential possibilities who could be seen as even remotely risky or unprepared;
Yep: “boring white guy” time: the subject has been done to death here, but does anyone think his will be a net electoral plus? IDTS.
wrapping the entire campaign around economic issues, knowing this topic alone will swing undecided voters in the final days;
Right: Bain Capital, “job cremator”, more “tax-cuts-solve-everything” boilerplate: winning arguments?? IDTS.
and, slowly but steadily, building up Romney as a safe and competent alternative to President Barack Obama.
And since “safe and competent” is what most people (outside the wingnutosphere) think of President Obama, this is their fallback? For VICTORY! ? IDTS….
Suffern ACE
@Rhoda: I don’t know why you think that. All they have to say is “Private Accounts” for social security and they get middle class voters in droves. And of course “We won’t touch anything for people over 55.” Now, you know and I know that the deficit will explode in that scenario rather quickly unless current benefits are cut or we bankrupt ourselves, or we suddenly decide that we don’t need a military any longer. Since Romney has stated he is planning on increasing military spending such that it will go to 4% GDP, I believe the plan is to use old people as kamakazie pilots, but the middle class voters won’t really know about that.
Calouste
@Teddy’s Person:
Sometime during the primaries. Yes, it caught everyone by surprise that there was such a thing as “too stupid” for the GOP primary electorate, but Perry went to infinity, and beyond.
Turgidson
@Ben Franklin:
Ryan could be perfect. He’s a bland charisma-free white guy just like Romney, but he clearly knows how to cook (or hire someone to cook more likely) good BBQ and properly tie up a tire swing – how else to describe the constant fellatio he gets from the media? He’s also not Mormon, so he can offer booze to the media when they need to take a break from said fellatio.
Sly
UNLIMITED BORING WHITE GUYS! VICTORY!
RossinDetroit
@Steve in DC:
Their main problem is that you do know they exist. This makes their boredom factor < Romney. They would all be interesting choices and are therefore unacceptable.
BGinCHI
How about the Reagan son who is the stupid wingnut?
James E Powell
The ideal choice would be a member of the Concern Caucus, like Evan Bayh.
Turgidson
He’s just enough of a self-interested dick to go for it, too.
WereBear
Oh wow. Did they pay $9 million dollars for that advice.
rikryah
said it before and I’ll saying it again…
outside of calling the President a NI-CLANG outright…
just what else do they think he hasn’t been called in the past 3 years?
been there. done that.
RossinDetroit
Ron Paul just suspended his campaign. Wouldn’t THAT be an interesting ticket. He’d definitely bring an entirely different group of voters that are otherwise unavailable to Romney.
RossinDetroit
Whoever agrees to run with Mitt, he’s got to consider whether getting clobbered this year will help or hurt him in ’16. I’m thinking that narrows the field way down.
yopd1
@Linda Featheringill: Portman is currently running first at intrade.com ahead of Rubio, so it’s probably a good bet.
Forum Transmitted Disease
“Five Planes” McCain lost for two reasons:
1. Obviously not knowing anything about the economy save that money comes from his trollop wife.
2. Palin.
Palin got a LOT of fence-sitters off the fence and voting Team Obama. My father, who voted Republican all his life, finally broke and voted Obama in 2008, explicitly because of her.
Don’t think that will happen this time around. Romney has many faults. He is not lazily stupid like McCain was, however. Will he do better?
No. Although I expect Dad will vote for him this time around.
Ash Can
Now, now, Mitt. You don’t want to alienate all those lovely base votes, now do you? Go on, pick Allen West. It’ll turn out great. I promise.
JASON
Bob Dobbs for VP?
http://www.penguinpetes.com/images/Bob_Dobbs_approves.jpg
Patricia Kayden
Well the Repub party has a plethora of boring White guys to choose from, so they probably already have a VP pick lined up.
eyelessgame
We might be able to predict – it’s also going to be a senator or governor who is a popular Republican from either Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Florida.
Who does that leave?
VOR
So is this a quiet admission by the RNC Establishment that Palin was a mistake? The official line has always been that Sarah Palin was NOT A MISTAKE, darn it! Unpossible!
I wonder if this admission of reality could open a rift with the Base?
Chris
@jl:
This.
The Politico article accurately summarizes what a rational person, looking at what the McCain campaign actually did, would be doing if he were trying to avoid falling into the same pitfalls. But it’s become an article of faith that McCain only failed because he wasn’t a True Conservative, just like Bush’s presidency failed because he wasn’t a True Conservative. I wouldn’t be surprised if large numbers of their campaign experts had firmly drank the kool aid and actually believed that – and whether or not they do, they’ve hitched their train to the far, far right pretty much irrevocably. Kind of a hard habit to break when you’ve been doing it since the fifties.
Either way, while I wouldn’t be surprised to see Romney pick a white guy (I expect it in fact), he’ll be anything but “boring.” Expect someone at least as mad as Sarah Palin.
Steve in DC
@eyelessgame
With NC and VA in play it might be Bob McDonnel. The gay marriage fiasco is going to hurt in those areas, and dragging out a social conservative might just give Romney the evangelical push he needs.
Aimai
In a move that shakes up the cw Romney chooses all five of his sons to run as vp. Cheney was the fourth branch, he crows, we’ll be the fifth.
Calouste
@Linda Featheringill:
Portman is a former budget director for Bush II. Team Obama is going to present that as “going back to the people who created the Great Recession”. Everyone who held a high level position under Bush II should be toxic to Romney for that reason, but I doubt he is smart enough to realize that. And it would damage his “Washington outsider” credentials.
shortstop
The GOP owes Sarah Palin bigtime. She’s given them at least 20 years of what they think is good cover for nominating boring white guys, which they were going to do anyway.
Chris
@RossinDetroit:
Ron Paul’s toxic to the vast majority of conservatives, because of what they call his “blame America first” (read: blame America ever at all) tendencies. He’d lose far more votes than he’d gain. No dice. Maybe his son.
(The funny thing is that Ron Paul could probably double his number of voters overnight if he advocated the same exact policies but changed the tone from “America needs to stop doing bad things overseas because then our chicken come home to roost” to “America needs to stop caring so much about Filthy Fucking Foreigners because we’re too good for them.” Someone who talked like that could actually make serious inroads, IMHO).
Princess Leia
I think he will pick Condi Rice. She plays the piano so beautifully.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Veep will be Paul Ryan. His budget that tosses Social Security to the CEO looting crew and dumps everyone on Medicare onto ice floes is irresistible to Villagers and banksters.
Soonergrunt
@FlipYrWhig: I would be surprised if McChrystal would take it. He has the reputation in the Army of being a (relative) liberal.
Nellcote
@Calouste:
3/4 of his foreign policy advisors are Bush era neocons.
Turgidson
Isn’t that the way Pat Buchanan used to say it? He didn’t do much better than Ron.
BGinCHI
Seriously, it’s important who Romney picks as his VP. Who knows how long these humanoid machines were built to last?
J.D. Rhoades
This is exactly what they assume. The wingnuts in my area are already taking victory laps because “Obama’s so unpopular, Mitt’s a shoo-in.” Srsly. They think that. Any poll that shows otherwise is “liberal” and therefore not to be trusted.
Ben Franklin
@Soonergrunt:
He has the reputation in the Army of being a (relative) liberal.
If that is true, I hope it doesn’t get out.
LanceThruster
@Aimai: We are Rmoney’s the Fifth, we am. Rmoney’s the Fifth, we am, we am…
J.D. Rhoades
Bite your tongue. That would be the best possible choice he could make. She’s got foreign policy cred (with the base, not with anyone from the real world) and any criticism of her would be immediately trumpeted as proof that it’s “liberals who are the real racists and sexists”! She’d be the queen of conservative butthurt.
Chris
@Turgidson:
Buchanan comes with his own baggage, like the fact that he’s a Holocaust denier. He also isn’t that different from Ron Paul in his interpretation of the war on terror: he’s said that terrorists “hate us for what we do, not who we are,” implying that U.S. interventionism was the cause of 9/11. Which makes him another one for the “Blame America First” pile.
kay
Base Republicans in this county are confident they are going to win. It’s weird because I’m not as confident as some here, but I think Obama’s in fairly good shape in Ohio, looking at polling, local volunteer turnout, etc.
So I don’t say anything back because I’m hoping they’ll tell me why they are so confident.
They don’t even like Romney, at all, they’re just convinced people hate Obama.
My picture was in the local paper standing next to Sherrod Brown (because I put it in there) and the wingnuts at the courthouse were all telling me today how “you” are going to lose. Me and. Brown? Me and Obama? Who knows.
I just think it’s odd. I wish I could get them to elaborate a little on whatever crackpot theory they’re relying on.
BGinCHI
@J.D. Rhoades: Plus she’s from Alabama, an important swing state.
Pangloss
How about Idaho Senator Mike Crapo? He is very boring. Plus, we’d get to see Romney-Crapo bumperstickers all over the country.
DFH no.6
@Culture of Truth:
Not so sure about the “George Patton steel” part. They really can’t do that with an “oh gosh, for Pete’s sake” milquetoast Mormon like Romney, and I don’t think they’ll even try that angle.
Nor do they need to this election, actually.
But economic savior with a Boy Scout demeanor (the Mormon thing fits that last perfectly)?
Absolutely.
That will be their primary campaign theme (as the solution to Romney’s oft-stated claim that Obama has made things worse economically).
And the media will mostly be happy to carry that water for them.
Applejinx
Ryan worries me, because I can see all the banksters and Cheneys really liking him and wanting him to run the show.
It’d be down to Romney’s ego not accepting it, I fear. Because if he did go along with that, and they managed to pull some kind of astonishing banana republic coup and ‘win’- count Romney’s life in weeks. And then the fox would be in charge of the henhouse.
For some reason I have this sense that Ryan is a lot shrewder and more serious about destroying the country- a real True Believer, not just an egomanaical asshole.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Boring white guy or not I can’t see whoever he picks being qualified to be President at a moment’s notice. I don’t think the Republican party has anyone left in it qualified to do anything other than nurse grievances in public and private.
Villago Delenda Est
@Princess Leia:
She also is absolutely drop dead gorgeous in thigh high leather boots.
Ben Franklin
@kay:
I’m hoping they’ll tell me why they are so confident.
I’ve been hearing the same sort of confidence they had in 2004. Even though Kerry was polling better, they seem cocky. Then in 2005 it was ‘whew, I thought we were goners’.
It’s whistling past the graveyard.
FlipYrWhig
@Soonergrunt: Ah. Well, I assume there’s no shortage of retired brass who would be willing to make a go of it. What about Odierno? Or Tommy Franks? I don’t know many names and none of their reputations. I’m looking for a conservative who can talk about American muscle and at least partially negate the Obama warfare/counterterrorism/foreign policy record.
I feel like Romney wants to run on, in essence, restoring white tradition, discipline, business sense, and patriarchy, and looking outside of the mass of currently-serving government officials helps reaffirm the impression that they’re giving the system a kick — even if the whole point is to reassert the power of The Establishment. Going with a business person helps do that too, but two rich corporate white people might be more off-putting than one rich corporate white person and one well-off military white person.
Roger Moore
@J.D. Rhoades:
Until questions about her sexuality started getting too loud. A black woman who’s rumored to be a lesbian is not the way to get the base fired up.
WereBear
I hope that’s a rationalization that will keep them home in November. “Aw, he’s going to win. Who’s on Dancing with the Stars?”
Redshift
@J.D. Rhoades: Yeah, but the much more numerous not-at-all-racist base would be appalled. “Those people” are allowed to be in the party as long as they know their place, and being next in line for the presidency definitely isn’t it.
Turgidson
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ):
If we’re still counting Bob Gates as a Republican, he’s the only one I can think of where he could be in charge and I wouldn’t live life in a constant state of dread and fear that the end of the republic as we know it could be near.
He’s earned some time off, though.
FlipYrWhig
@DFH no.6: I’ve been saying that I think the Republicans want to run this time as “Traditional Dad.” That way Romney’s boringness, old-fashionedness, and wealth become potential strengths, and Obama’s coolness and modernity become potential weaknesses.
They’ll run with the idea that Obama is like the hip young stepdad who lets you stay up late and get away with everything, but you’re not afraid of him and don’t really deep down respect him, so you want Mom to get back together with Dad, because even when Dad is strict it’s only because he means the best for you.
stratplayer
I don’t think there’s much Romney or anyone else can do to contain the wingnuttery of his chosen party at this point. The crazies will set the tone of the campaign and no amount of boring, sober white businessman schtick will prevent that. Obama knows this is Romney’s biggest vulnerability and he will exploit it at every turn. He will not permit Romney to underplay the social conservative agenda.
stratplayer
@FlipYrWhig: Won’t work. Coolness is one strength that can’t be turned into a weakness.
FlipYrWhig
@stratplayer: I don’t think it’ll work, but if your nominee is Romney, I don’t see what other play you really have. And they’ve already been working to revive lines like “celebrity” and “in over his head.”
Rhoda
@Suffern ACE: That would be my dream, I wish the motherfuckers would. Bush did that, and it helped us retake the house in ’06.
DFH no.6
@kay: @kay:
That’s easy.
Their “crackpot theory” is that the economy’s still not doing very well and thus the incumbent (that would be Obama) is in trouble (as are the downticket Dems).
Worked pretty well for them in 2010.
The fascists won’t have anything like the electoral success they had in 2010 (that shellacking would be hard to duplicate) but the still-anemic economy means that Obama and the Democratic Senatorial candidates are going to have a very tough time this year.
The wingnuts are confident they will win because there’s a pretty good chance they will, and we’ll have a Republican administration and Senate to go along with the House (which the fascists have no chance of losing).
Yeah, I know – I’m a concern troll, apparently.
Bruce S
You can’t have a shit sandwich without two pieces of white bread.
jl
@kay:
” Base Republicans in this county are confident they are going to win. ”
I guess I am a base Democrat, at least for last twenty years or so, as soon as I grew out of youthful indiscretions.
I am guardedly optimistic about presidential race. Not at all confident about holding GOP at bay in Congress.
Beats me how either side can be confident in a glum and frustrated economic climate like this, with neither side being able to claim particularly high ground on economic management.
So, am practicing my door knocking, doorbell ringing and phoneside manner for GOTV for election. That is not a sign of over confidence about the outcome.
kay
@WereBear:
Oh, they’ll vote. I live in the most Republican precinct in the city and the turnout is usually 70%.
I just think this crowing 6 months out is a little unseemly :)
Honestly, though it makes me nervous when they’re so far off what I consider reality, which is that I don’t know how it turns out.
General Stuck
@Applejinx:
He is a true believer, and beyond that, uninhibited in the manner of a Rick Santorum. The only problem is that true belief compels him to destroy medicare and SS, at least as entitlements, with the delusion that if you want to do something big, be upfront about it.
But SS and medicare, and later the ACA, have become the core epoxy that keeps this country half way glued together, and there is no way to be upfront for that and not be upfront for destroying the country as it has been.
Not going to happen, and if it did, our problems would be way more serious than they seem right now. The GOP at large, is taking this general stance on the most popular of progressive ideas turned into law over the decades. While shedding the very hard maintenance of a grifters patience for the long con, to get what they want. Which is undoing those entitlements, but in a way that they can escape the backlash at the polls.
I think it’s from reading the writing on the wall with demographics, and a hubris from Citizens United that they can buy elections no matter what their policies are. It is, or has become Plan A. And you can guess what Plan B is if Plan A fails to keep them in power.
Ryan as a VP pick, would be an exclamation point, on the disaster to come with Romney as the wingnut nominee. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a chance to win, that would be the Rorschach test to how deep out national dysfunction goes.
jl
Personally, I hope Walker is available for VP. He would be great pick.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay: Honestly, though it makes me nervous when they’re so far off what I consider reality, which is that I don’t know how it turns out
I think it was Weigel, during the primaries, who posted some interviews with some Obama-is-a-muslim-socialist, asking them how they explained ’08 if Obama is as unpopular as they say. They were very matter-of-fact in saying it was all voter fraud.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Mitten’s plays it safe again. Now why in the Hell does this clown want to be president? The country isn’t in fucking “safe times” and the last damn thing we need is a caretaker president.
pragmatism
rMoney should go really rogue. bristol palin has been providing some
sharpcommentary recently. that whole constitutional issue of her being too young can be smoothed over easily. show ’em who’s boss, mitt.DFH no.6
@FlipYrWhig:
That will definitely be part of their campaign strategy, though it won’t be quite so baldly stated.
Romney will be portrayed as the level-headed business executive we so sorely need in these trying economic times (aka, older “square” white daddy figure).
He certainly looks the part, doesn’t he?
This is also why they will go with another “non-risky” whitebread dude as the VP. To do otherwise would mess with the “competent daddy figure” meme.
jl
@DFH no.6:
problem is that Romney gives off the vibe of a secret psycho hospital manager who
offs sick patients losers parasites sapping the economic health of the enterpriseselflessly volunteers, for Pete’s sake, to relieve helpless people from their suffering late at night.Or at least I remember a TV movie a few years ago with an evil hospital manager lead who looked like a younger Romney.
Yikes, Romney and Ryan on the same ticket would creep me out. I would dub them ‘Rmoney and your ruin’.
RossinDetroit
@WereBear:
The GOP can have it both ways: “Awesome Romney is way ahead but vote anyway so Acorn can’t steal the election”.
I’m thinking like a Republican now. Time to go lie down until it passes.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hah! I think they’d be afraid to bring up voter fraud with me because if they do, they’re getting a 20 minute harangue.
I had once nice thing happen, as a result of the Sherrod-shilling. A very old woman told me “Republican was a dirty word in my house growing up”. She said it so conspiratorially and furtively it made me laugh, like we’re in a secret club.
Princess Leia
@J.D. Rhoades: I’d bite my tongue, but I’m trying to be prepared for the most cynical thing that could happen.
Princess Leia
@Villago Delenda Est: AbsoLUTEly!
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Lolis: Lolis, I was talking about this with a friend just this past weekend.
PLEASE let Romney bring up the Rev. Wright directly.
Obama’s perfect response: “Governor Romney, do any videos exist of your pastor’s sermons? No? Why? Oh, really?”
Yeah, the “Rev. Wright” path of attack is fucked. And less specific than that, I’d be damn careful about anything that hinted of “Obama is not a true Christian!” tack as well if I were Mitt.
the fugitive uterus
The convention is going to be very, very ugly. So much conflict within the republican party and so much hatred for Obama. Ron Paul supporters are acting up. Guns everywhere. Crazies everywhere. Are they going to be busing them in?
And, you are so fucking welcome, asshats. Comparing Obama and Cheney in any way is so offensive to me. I completely discount anything Cheney has to say on any subject, the man should be in fucking prison, for heaven’s sake. If a serial killer told me he supported gay marriage, I wouldn’t exactly be using that to support my position. I see no difference.
Seriously, have they not one positive thing to say? They haven’t got behind Romney and now what are they going to do? Who the fuck are these people, anyway? Fuck them.
And, Romney donor (CEO of the New York-based consulting firm Constellations Group) pulls support, backs Obama, over same-sex marriage
DFH no.6
@General Stuck:
This is how the fascists will do it (which will happen if they win the presidency and take the senate):
They’ll write the legislation so that the Baby Boomers (and the older generation too, of course, but the Boomer numbers are what count the most) will continue to get SS and Medicare same as now, but the younger generations get to have the Ryan voucher crap (while still paying FICA during their working years).
That way they get the votes of the massive Boomer cohort, which will dwarf the younger cohorts at the voting booth for some time.
If they included the Boomers in the voucher ripoff they would be voted out of office the very next election, and SS and Medicare would be put right back where they were.
They know that, which is why it’s always couched in “nothing changes for those over 55” language.
They will break the generational promise, only they’ll break it to today’s younger generation, not older people.
And the decades-long Republican dream of destroying the New Deal will become reality (and yes, that means the problems of our nation, as you said, will be way more serious than they seem now).
The Other Chuck
One big thing McCain did was to be a Republican.
Gosh, I guess they’re not reversing everything after all.
Ben Franklin
That way they get the votes of the massive Boomer cohort, which will dwarf the younger cohorts at the voting booth for some time.
That Giant Bubble of humanity will dominate the landscape for a quarter-century.
Ben Franklin
@The Other Chuck:
Howdy
the fugitive uterus
It will be delicious to see Mitt try to share the spotlight with another person. He is just so uncomfortable with everybody. He looked like he had hemorrhoids during all those lukewarm introductions from Falwell’s son, et al.
Gore was stiff, eh? Perhaps, but I don’t remember him ever looking like “get me the fuck out of here and the hell away from these plebes!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@the fugitive uterus:
Yeah, that’s one reason I don’t think he’ll go with Ryan, he doens’t want to be upstage, and one of the many reasons he can’t pick Christie
hitchhiker
My wingnut friends believe with all their hearts that Obama is unintelligent (someone else wrote his books; he won’t share his grades; he got where he is through affirmative action).
They also think the economy shows that he’s totally over his head and has been from the get-go.
They cannot believe that this is not apparent to me, and they chalk my inability to see it up to what they describe as his total free pass in the media.
They believe he got elected through a combination of ACORN shenanigans, silly idealistic college kids, and the full support of racist black people. They’re positive that with ACORN out of the way and so many important new voter fraud laws on the books, they’ll win.
When I look at the polling in swing states, I feel pretty sure they’re going to have a tough day next November, but I take nothing for granted.
WereBear
@hitchhiker: Gee, there’s problems with my world… but I wouldn’t live in theirs.
the fugitive uterus
The fitting, most appropriate choice would be either Walker or Ryan.
General Stuck
@DFH no.6:
While anytime there is a two man race for POTUS, stuff can happen and the republicans can win. But that would be a long shot, at best, imo. As early as it is, I predict Obama gets reelected, and dems keep the senate, with the House being very close, if not going to dems.
So for now, I am actually kind of optimistic, though 2016 could be a wingnut year, if they can find a candidate better than Mitt Romney. And after that, pretty soon the Millenials will be voting more reliably, and demographics start shifting towards more minority voting power. And the wingers will have to moderate, or ditch democracy for other kinds of politics to get power. This election, Voting patterns for Boomers and Genxers, will likely be a wash, as it was mostly in 2008. And I don’t think SS and the other New Deal programs go by the wayside, without the democratic republic going with them.
Just an opinion.
DFH no.6
@Ben Franklin:
Yes, we most certainly will (I’m smack in the middle of the Boomer generation).
If the Republicans win this November they’ll gut the New Deal by some time in 2014 (and repeal Obamacare sooner, even if the SCOTUS lets it stand this June, which I’m not expecting).
They’ll just have to do it without angering the 70 million-headed monster.
DFH no.6
@General Stuck:
I expect Obama to be reelected, too, just by a much closer margin than 2008.
The Democrats will be very fortunate to hang on to the Senate, though (they just might, but it will be by the skin of their teeth).
And re-take the House? Now that’s a real long-shot, at best.
FlipYrWhig
@hitchhiker: How many black people do they think there are in America? The view you describe is kind of like that voiced by one of my wife’s former co-workers about a past season of American Idol: “Oh, Fantasia is going to win, because black people always stand up for their own.”
the fugitive uterus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: they did seem rather chummy, I mean as chummy as Mitt can be, in WI. hmmm. That in itself is a little scary.
DFH no.6
@General Stuck:
Here’s the thing – if (and I think it’s “when” should the fascists prevail this November) SS and Medicare “go by the wayside” it will be in stages.
It will be done a lot like the two-tier wage contracts that have become endemic over the past two decades.
The older people — the currently retired, and soon-to-be-retired — will be in the top tier, and will partake of SS and Medicare as those programs are presently constituted.
The younger people will be in the lower tier, and they’ll get the shaft that Republicans have been promising would happen since forever (self-fulfilling prophecy). They’ll get the Ryan voucher ripoff as their retirement “benefit” while continuing to fund retirees’ “top tier” benefits via payroll taxes.
How resentful the younger generation will be about that is the big question (I think they’ll be very fucking resentful – but mostly of the old retired folks, not the fascists who created the problem).
feebog
It will be McDonald or Corbett. They need both of those states, so if the Rombot 2.0 could, he would choose both. The Rombot will run this through the logic circuts stored in his head, and one of these two white guys will get the call.
Jeffro
Portman or McDonnell, guar-an-teed. The rest is fun speculation but it fits all the needs:
– boring white guy oh-so-amusingly unknown even in his own state
– “quiet competence” (expect to hear a LOT of that)
– fundie credentials without a whole lot of baggage
– ability to fuel a whole lot of media-driven swing-state drama
Good enough for them, so that’s who it’ll be.
Also, Bruce S @ 138 wins, hands down.
Jeffro
@DFH no.6:
Yup, 51% of the PV this time instead of 53%, and around 300 EVs this time instead of 330 or so.
General Stuck
@DFH no.6:
You have the theory correct to what the wingers want to do with SS and medicare, but they will have to have the numbers for total control, including a 60 vote majority in the senate. Or, do away with the filibuster, or cloture rule, because dems will never surrender their signature programs to the private sector, that are the NEw Deal. And if they do away with the filibuster for legislation, it will be a fatal breach of the constitutional framework the founders gave us, for suppression of the tyranny of the majority. I think it would surprise most people, just how fast this country would unwind, if that were to happen.
Though I do think that means testing for medicare is a possibility at some point of compromise to fix that programs fiscal problems in the near term. But would have to come with also raising FICA taxes.
Ben Franklin
@General Stuck:
But would have to come with also raising FICA taxes.
Like removing the cap on payroll tax?
I concur.
asiangrrlMN
I read that Pawlenty is a serious option. If this is true – I’m issuing fair warning – and he is picked, I will stab someone with my rusty pitchfork™.
ruemara
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah, this is true, like when Alan Keyes wins things and when President Jesse Jackson just stampeded over the competition.
Alex S.
Rob Portman
Jinchi
My guess is that they’ll just clone Mitt, himself.
Sally Rakowski
Democratic boring white guy VP candidates through time:
Joe Biden, boring white guy status helped only due to his endless stream of gaffes.
John Edwards, boring white guy if you ignore his sleaziness and his ability to dupe a large portion of the populace into thinking he was a nice guy who cared about two Americas.
Al Gore……..reaked of boring white guy.
Lloyd Bentsen, quintessential boring white guy but bailed out by Al Gore in the category.
Geraldine Ferrraro, not a boring white guy only because she wasn’t a guy.
Walter Mondale, one of the original boring white guys.