2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Want to know who your real friends are? Try losing a presidential election some time.
Mitt Romney got some flak yesterday for saying that his loss was partially attributable to "gifts" that the Obama Administration targeted towards young, Black, and Hispanic voters. That was predictable. What may be a little more surprising is how much of it came from fellow Republicans -- especially those considering a 2016 presidential bid.
“I absolutely reject that notion, that description” of Obama’s winning strategy, which Romney made in a conference call that reporters heard. “I think that’s absolutely wrong.”
The election, Jindal said, showed that “if we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream. Period. No exceptions.”
The potential 2016 hopeful told POLITICO that he hadn't seen the full context of Romney's comments, and downplayed them as simply "an analysis to donors." But he said, "our mission should not be to deny government benefits to people who need them," but the party should work to ensure "less people need government benefits."
"I don’t want to rebut him point by point," Rubio said of Romney. "I would just say to you, I don’t believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don’t want to work. I’m not saying that’s what he said. I think we have millions of people in this country that are out of work and are dependent on the government because they can't find a job."
What say the Ricochetti? Are we hopeless in the face of the Santa Claus state?
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Comments:
Nov '12
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Between the Santa Claus state, the slanderous press, and a popular culture that defines responsibility as uncool, what exactly is the justification for hope? Yes, feeling hopeless.
May '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
I really, really, really want Marco Rubio to be my president. Maybe it's because he's brown and I'm bigoted in favor of brown people. But what he says is right. Bobby Jindal would get my vote, too (not just because he's brown... well...).
Edited on November 15, 2012 at 8:35pmOct '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Romney is not a good politician. "47", now this comment; he keeps reinforcing negative stereotypes of Republicans. I hope the GOP can find better leadership for 2014 and 2016. I just saw excerpts from Obama's press conference where a female 'journalist' said to Obama "I've never seen you lose." We'll need someone with strong political skills, like a Christie or Rubio, to overcome this bias.
Oct '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Masked Man-"Between the Santa Claus state, the slanderous press, and a popular culture that defines responsibility as uncool, what exactly is the justification for hope? Yes, feeling hopeless."
I expect things to go pear-shaped in one to three years-hyper-inflation, rising unemployment. We just need good, aggressive spokesman.
Sep '12
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
When you're a kid, Santa Clause is your favorite benefactor. When you're a parent barely scraping by, Santa Clause is a VISA card and some very uncomfortable phone calls in the first three months of the next year. Which force exerts a greater influence on Christmas spending: Desires or their consequences?
The GOP can't compete with the Democrats' Santa Clause but it can make the very uncomfortable phone calls to the voters and should do. Make the American people painfully aware of the consequences of their spending - yes, their spending! This is a critically important point: Congress represents the people so the people are ultimately responsible for the spending Congress does. If it's the other way around, then we no longer have self-government.
In the meantime we administer the poison pill that will kill the GOP and give rise to a political machine that is not stupid and craven: We give the Democrats everything they want, and I mean everything.
May '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Those two, Jindal and Rubio, are distancing themselves from that comment (despite the fact that they most likely agree in private) so that they can avoid having soundbites for the media to broadcast all over the 2016 election. They know exactly what the other side will do to win elections. I think Romney understands that. He shouldn't expect support from anyone with a political future.
Sep '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Who?
Sep '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Democrats spell Santa with an e on the end.
As in Heh.
Oct '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
It sounds like an exploratory committee is for those two men is in the making as we speak. To quote my tweet from the day after the election,"Only 3 years and 2 months until the Iowa caucuses!"
Apr '12
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
We need to demonstrate and explain the moral case for the Free Enterprise system (a la Arthur Brooks from AEI) to those who think capitalism only favors the wealthy and connected. We need living examples of people, mostly from minority groups since we are in the age of identity politics, that have succeeded in business, entrepreneurship, and private sector leadership and are willing to speak out about the moral case for encouraging others to seek excellence in the private economy.
Jan '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Taking my cue from Rubio, I also don't know the full context of the remarks made by everyone quoted, but just in general I want to respond to this ...
No.
If you object that government is the only place that has enough money to provide help, remember that the way they got that money was to take it out of the economy ... which causes much of the problem in the first place.
Second, remember that the help that government offers is based on enormous, unwise social promises that every accountant in the world tells us will bankrupt us in the nearing future. Politicians corrupted these government benefits to the point that they won't benefit anyone.
We're not against Help. We're against bankruptcy for everyone.
Jun '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
He lost 24 states. I am sure that he is as popular in those 24 states as tuberculosis or rabies. If you don't like to witness idiots dancing in the endzone, though, it may be a long four years.
The '47' number looks like it was optimistic. What exactly was untrue about Romney's remarks?
Dec '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
What's weird is that Jindal said almost the same thing as Romney, he just couched it in slightly different terms and did it while yelling at (i.e. distancing himself from) that loser rich guy from MA. Yay, politics!
Romney: Obama went after specific voter blocks by handing out goodies to special interest groups. Ryan and I talked about big ideas that would have helped everyone.
Jindal: We need to stop dividing the country up by interest group and pursue policies/big ideas that will help everyone.
So, ummm...?
Aug '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
While I think what Romney said was perfectly accurate, it makes perfect sense for Republicans with presidential ambitions in 2016 to do everything they can to not be associated with anything that might offend key demographics.
I have no problem with Bobby Jindal saying, "Romney shouldn't have said that," as long as he doesn't take a Free Stuff For Everybody position at the same time.
It may be perfectly accurate to say that Obama's voters like free stuff from the government, but it's not smart to insult people if you want their vote.
Now I have no problem with Romney saying it. After all, he no longer wants their vote.
But anybody who does want to get people to switch their vote from D to R cannot afford to let their image be tainted by the meme that they only want some people's votes.
If I was a candidate, of course I'd want every voter to think I want their vote! That doesn't mean I'm going to pander to their demands, but it does mean I have to distance myself from any talk that is seen as denigrating some voters.
Jun '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Politicians act like politicians. But I must say both Jindal and Rubio just went down a notch in my eyes. (And I still like both).
Have we lost the virtue of gratitude? Both men could easily have danced around that question without (1) pandering (yes, there are a lot of voters who are more than happy with free stuff) and (2) without dissing Romney.
When Jindal had his big chance to respond to Obama's state of the union and, shall we say, "blew it," a lot of folks piled on. What he and the rest of us need to remember are the ones who kept their mouths shut and didn't criticize him.
Politicians have short memories for things people do for them, and long memories for slights.
Aug '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Mitt Romney doesn't need anybody's political support anymore. He's a private citizen now. He can say what he wants, and it shouldn't be used against future candidates.
Of course, the reality is that anything will be used against future candidates if it can be, which is why I don't mind Jindal and Rubio's comments.
(What I really wanna know is, is he gonna retire, is he gonna go back to rescuing depressed companies, and where do I apply to be Jeeves to his Wooster? ;-)
Mar '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
Are Jindal and Rubio trying to tick are the most conservative base? I like them both a lot.
I could understand a statement were they disagree that it is wrong to say it was the only contributing factor to the loss. However, saying it had no roll, what universe are they living in. Do they even understand human nature? I understand you don't get votes by insulting people if you are a Republican (were as that is how you get them if you are a Democrat in a Primary).
Don’t get me wrong it comes across as a lame excuses on Romney behalf even if it is true that this was the major reason why Obama was able get a D6%+ turnout. However, totally distancing yourself from 100% of the analysis Romney gave, with-out breaking down in detail why you believe the statement is wrong, makes you appear like your typical political weasel.
Oct '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
I think Romney would have been a fine President. Maybe even a really good one considering our current situation. However, this election should have been a walk in the park for republicans and it wasn't because the top of the ticket couldn't get out the vote. That's on Romney the candidate and nobody else.
Aug '10
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
tabula rasa: Politicians act like politicians. But I must say both Jindal and Rubio just went down a notch in my eyes. (And I still like both).
Have we lost the virtue of gratitude? Both men could easily have danced around that question without (1) pandering (yes, there are a lot of voters who are more than happy with free stuff) and (2) without dissing Romney.
<devil's advocate mode = on>
What if the best thing Mitt Romney can do now to help a future Republican victory is to offer up his persona of the out-of-touch white guy as a punching bag?
That does not mean that Republicans need to change their policy stands to differ from Romney substantively.
If Romney's image is set in stone in the minds of voters, I can imagine Mitt being classy enough to say to other Republicans, "let me have it, if it'll help."
Like Reagan said, it's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.
<devil's advocate mode = off>
Mar '11
Re: 2016 GOP Crowd Walking Away from Romney
The problem is that those who want government to be "Dad" instead of "Uncle Sam" have forgotten what is probably the most important thing that Dads do. That is, telling Junior when it's time to take his hand out of the old man's wallet, walk through the door to make his own way in the world and call home when he gets a job.