The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finds himself, at long last, with a clear path to the Republican nomination for president. The ugliness of the primary season, the viciousness and venom still sting but the flesh wounds have begun to heal.
President Romney would, without question, be a better chief executive than President Obama. Rather than the feckless, rudderless equivocations about foreign policy or economic recovery de rigeur in the Obama Administration, the American people could feel safe and confident again. There is a responsibility for the Commander in Chief to be strong, confident and communicate clearly.
President Obama's leadership has been marked by arrogance, a characteristic he and his defenders routinely confuse with strength. Being a name-calling schoolyard bully that wins fights via intimidation isn't a strategy. It's weakness, ignorance and cloying. Everyone knows that the biggest bullies have a glass jaw.
Mitt Romney is the kid on the school playground who shatters the glass jaw, defeats the bully then marches back to class and answers each question deliberately and correctly. His success looks effortless but that placid demeanor masks the real reason behind it. Dedication.
The world we live in is not safe. We need a president who leads, who will stand up for us and the world's most vulnerable during G8 and G20 meetings. The United States is a beacon of freedom, and our president should not be ashamed of it or apologize for it. He, or she, should be proud to represent our nation and our values.
Romney has assembled an excellent team of professionals, people with an undstanding of how governance works. A leviathan awaits. Reversing Obama doctrine will require skilled staff, patience and a desire to do the job well. Every president sets the tone and agenda, and recognizing Romney will repair relations with the conservative wing of the Republican party, folks must learn how to separate their personal animus from doing what is best for the country.
The Romney presidency, if half as successful as his tenure at the Olympics or at Bain, would be a triumph for the United States. Defeating President Obama will require patience. Obama wants to win at any cost. Our job is to remind the American people the only entitlement spending Obama actually cares about are his own campaign coffers. Romney cares about fulfilling the American dream, and while he may not be a knight in shining armor, he has a demonstrated ability to lead, achieve success, and rise from the electoral ashes.
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Dec '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Hey, fuhgeddaboutit; that works sometimes...
Dec '10
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
The irony is that Romney has demonstrated better skills as a leader during his non-political career stints than he does as a Presidential campaigner. More than one pundit has suggested that if Mitt Romney had as poor a campaigner as Mitt Romney working for him, he'd fire the guy.
Dec '10
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Elizabeth Blackney, Guest Contributor:
Mitt Romney is the kid on the school playground who shatters the glass jaw, defeats the bully then marches back to class and answers each question deliberately and correctly. His success looks effortless but that placid demeanor masks the real reason behind it. Dedication.
I don't buy this part of the argument. Mitt Romney did plenty schoolyard bullying himself during this primary season.
One hopes his professionals are better at governance than his campaign team has been at managing their candidate's image. One also wonders why President Romney would feel compelled to, or even care to, repair relations with folks in the conservative wing of the Republican Party: as soon as he clinches the nomination, he won't need them anymore.
Apr '12
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
There is much to admire in Romney as Ms. Blackney aptly illustrates - his performance at Bain & the olympics, the incredible organizational skill he is demonstrating in his campaign, and managing to govern MA while LOWERING taxes (Reagan raised taxes in CA, a less liberal state then).
What is confusing about Romney detractors is their Platonic approach to the primary season. Romney is not conservative - yet they dont offer an alternative; rather they seem to be complaining that they haven't found perfection (Hint: doesn't exist in reality).
Let's examine the obvious alternative. Santorum thinks too much like a big-government liberal for my tastes. Supposedly he could restart the economy by providing tax breaks to his favorite sector - manufacturing. I might have missed it - since when do conservatives favor government economic planning? His insane reasoning for supporting Specter further destroys his illusion of being a Tea party conservative.
Gingrich is a pragmatist, not a conservative. His flip-flopping on the Ryan plan is the best illustration; also note that he was for a federal health insurance mandate before he was against it.
Anyone who could claim more conservative than Romney dropped out of the race long ago...
Jun '10
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
The Primary is over. We have a candidate. All of the digs on Mitt Romney have been stated over and over on dozens of posts..and that is just right here on Ricochet. Heck, I could copy and paste my own previous posts and it would fill this comment section. Stuart, Jimmy, Sisyphus, all of us, it is time to make some lemonade. Ms Blackney has done a nice job of that with this short post. Now we need to defeat that smug prevaricator in chief who wants to steal our liberty. Remember, the rich guy isn't trying to smother our freedom, it's always the government. The government right now is Barack Hussein Obama.
Jan '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
I second cdor.
When faced with what one believes is the choice between two evils, you do NOT have to support the lesser of the two.
You are, however, morally and rationally required to defeat the greater of the two evils.
Do not praise Romney.
Bury Obama.
Elect no Democrat anywhere, ever.
Apr '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Stuart Creque
The irony is that Romney has demonstrated better skills as a leader during his non-political career stints than he does as a Presidential campaigner. More than one pundit has suggested that if Mitt Romney had as poor a campaigner as Mitt Romney working for him, he'd fire the guy. ·
These pundits have frequently been saying this in the course of explaining why Romney was going to lose. It's possible that, with hindsight, this was always a dumb line of argument. Against an electorate that featured a massive religion based ABR vote, and candidates backed by the biggest individual donations in a primary in history, Romney never looked like he was likely to lose to any but the most wishful of thinkers, possibly excepting the last couple of weeks of January (nobody anticipated King of Bain as a Republican attack).
The advice was generally similarly wishful: "if he was smart", he'd flip flop on Romneycare, or he'd repudiate moderate Republicans (eg. Norm Coleman) or he'd talk about Mormonism, or he'd advocate a flat tax, or declare Palin his VP.
Apr '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Stuart Creque
One hopes his professionals are better at governance than his campaign team has been at managing their candidate's image. One also wonders why President Romney would feel compelled to, or even care to, repair relations with folks in the conservative wing of the Republican Party: as soon as he clinches the nomination, he won't need them anymore. · 19 hours ago
There are people in the conservative wing he will need to repair relations with; he's doing that with Dick Armey, and the NOM and other Romney '08 backers who supported Santorum (including Santorum himself). It should be obvious that he needs them to win, and to enact reforms. There are more people in the conservative wing who are already on board with him (DeMint, the Bushes, Justice Bork, about half the Tea Party, Ryan, Utah, most of National Review). There are conservatives who will never see sense (Viguerie etc.) Campaign building is textured and complex.
Jul '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
For those that are finding it hard to enthusiastically support Romney or sell him to moderates, here is something to start with:
Romney is a compassionate hero.
They may not be a good argument for his policies, but these stories speak very well to his humanity, and his discretion speaks to his humility.
-E
Aug '10
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
For the record, I strongly support Mitt Romney because he more closely matches my ideal president than anyone else pursuing the office. In 2008, he was a conservative alternative, and he was a victim of the splitting of that constituency among several alternatives to John McCain. He has not changed as a person, but he learned how to run a campaign to win the primary. Now the challenge is to win the election in November. He is the only one in the race who has won delegates in every state and territory so far, and by the time it is over, he will have done so in every case.
Most of the posts on Ricochet that deride Mitt Romney, describe someone else, not Mitt. With time, perhaps they will disgard the false memes, lick their wounds, learn about the real Mitt, and come out fighting for conservative leadership even if the candidate was not their original choice. For the sake of our nation, I hope so.
Dec '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
I cant tell you who I am with until after the libertarian convention may 3-6.
Apr '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Assuming Governor Johnson wins, the Libertarian party is more likely to be responsible for the election of a Democrat than ever before (possible exception for 1980, this far in advance, and obviously for 2000, retrospectively). A vote for the Libertarian party is one less vote that Obama needs to build on Obamacare, which would then never be overturned, appoint a solid liberal majority to the SCOTUS, bankrupt America, and reassert union dominance. There is no chance whatsoever of a Libertarian party victory; this is not speculative Third Party voting in the Perot tradition, but in the self indulgent Nader tradition.
Nov '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Mitt Romney is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being to ever run for President, and I personally will be voting for him once per robocall that I receive.
Feb '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Mitt will make us proud and do what he says he will do. Thank heaven he had the courage to run and that Ann supported his decision.
Mitt offers a stark contrast to the government-centered Obama. He is a man of accomplishment against a Chicago pol who did nothing but speechify to get where he is.
It's time to rev up the enthusiasm and do all we can to win the White House and the Senate.
Mar '12
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Love the one you are with? So far as I can tell, Romney is not with a significant of portion of the conservative movement. Cheap words don't change that. He has not even tried to get with most of us, working under the assumption that we'd buckle under because anyone is better than Obama.
Last election we had the privilege of voting for McCain, the maverick who did not seem to be very conservative, and whose bona fides needed the amplification of Sarah Palin to shore up "his base."
You love the one you are with. At this point, I am not with anyone, and I already believe that Obama is wretched morally, fiscally and militarily.
Unfortunately at this point, barring a stupendous comeback by a conservative, I don't have a candidate and your candidate has never even made a play for people like me.
Aug '10
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Donald Todd: Love the one you are with? So far as I can tell, Romney is not with a significant of portion of the conservative movement. Cheap words don't change that. He has not even tried to get with most of us, working under the assumption that we'd buckle under because anyone is better than Obama.
Last election we had the privilege of voting for McCain, the maverick who did not seem to be very conservative, and whose bona fides needed the amplification of Sarah Palin to shore up "his base."
You love the one you are with. At this point, I am not with anyone, and I already believe that Obama is wretched morally, fiscally and militarily.
Unfortunately at this point, barring a stupendous comeback by a conservative, I don't have a candidate and your candidate has never even made a play for people like me. · 3 hours ago
Donald, you have a place to start because Romney is not wretched, morally, fiscally, or militarily. Get his book, No Apology, and read it carefully, you will be surprised to find out that he is in fact consistently conservative.
Apr '11
Re: The Nominee: Love the One You're With
Donald Todd: Love the one you are with? So far as I can tell, Romney is not with a significant of portion of the conservative movement. Cheap words don't change that. He has not even tried to get with most of us, working under the assumption that we'd buckle under because anyone is better than Obama.
Last election we had the privilege of voting for McCain, the maverick who did not seem to be very conservative, and whose bona fides needed the amplification of Sarah Palin to shore up "his base."
You love the one you are with. At this point, I am not with anyone, and I already believe that Obama is wretched morally, fiscally and militarily.
Unfortunately at this point, barring a stupendous comeback by a conservative, I don't have a candidate and your candidate has never even made a play for people like me. ·
There are plenty of conservatives of most stripes who have found Mitt appealing, and proof of his reaching out can be seen in exit polls. When you say he's not for "people like you", who do you mean? Could you elaborate on your basis for exclusion without referencing Romneycare?