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  1. Lidens Cheng Member
    Lidens Cheng
    @LidensCheng

    With this speech, the establishment Republicans have officially lost their minds. What is the point in bringing out a former, losing nominee to speak against a current front-runner? Besides, Trump has no time for loooooooosers.

    • #151
  2. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Mike LaRoche:

    Klaatu:

    once you resort to screaming fascist! Racist! You have lost the debate. Welcome to democrat tactics 101.

    Unless the person in question is actually a fascist or a racist.

    I love the smell of desperation in the evening. Smells like victory!

    Mike do you have an actual counter argument or just your typical hollow one liners?

    I have never once seen you make an argument for your preferred candidate and I think the site would benefit from more substance.

    • #152
  3. Klaatu Inactive
    Klaatu
    @Klaatu

    I love the smell of desperation in the evening. Smells like victory!

    Same kind of victory we had in Vietnam.

    • #153
  4. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    M.P.:

    EThompson: They still can’t afford dirt-cheap unless the most famous oligarchs of the Putin era including Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Fridman, Mikhail Prokhorov, Alisher Usmanov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Michelson, Vagit Alekperov, Pyotr Aven, and still Vladimir Potanin and Vitaly Malkin choose to chip in.

    It seems to me that one of the main reasons Russia is in Syria is as quid-pro-quo for the multi-billion dollar arms sales they’re inking with Iran. Whatever else you could say about Putin’s Russia, it’s not the Soviet Union. I don’t think they would invade a country like Syria unless it made sound financial sense.

    The country is still broke and the cost of human lives and treasure will never off-set the arms deal. I would argue your point that it is not the Soviet Union, comrade; it is led by ex- KGB. He’s far more interested in power than profit; hence the fact this country will never be a prosperous one. It is doomed to repeat its sorry history.

    • #154
  5. M.P. Inactive
    M.P.
    @MP

    EThompson: The country is still broke and the cost of human lives and treasure will never off-set the arms deal.

    Well, the cost in terms of human lives is irrelevant to Putin’s thinking here. The financial cost is, as I said before, small: estimates now are about $8 million /day. Putin isn’t there to nation build, or even necessarily to destroy ISIS. He’s reinforcing one of his own client states and creating closer ties to another client state–Iran–of whom Syria is a puppet state.

    Putin’s personal wealth is estimated to be tens of billions, so he could fund this war out of his own pocket for decades without breaking a sweat.

    • #155
  6. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Lidens Cheng:With this speech, the establishment Republicans have officially lost their minds. What is the point in bringing out a former, losing nominee to speak against a current front-runner? Besides, Trump has no time for loooooooosers.

    Romney did not speak for the Republican Party. No one “brought him out.”

    He spoke for himself.

    • #156
  7. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Lidens Cheng:With this speech, the establishment Republicans have officially lost their minds. What is the point in bringing out a former, losing nominee to speak against a current front-runner? Besides, Trump has no time for loooooooosers.

    OK, I’m guessing you think that the “establishment Republicans” put Romney up to this because he was “brought out.”  This is just an assumption though, right?  Would you agree that Romney has both the resources and the name recognition to have done this on his own?

    As an aside, is there any indication the present frontrunner has the support of 60m Americans (in 2012 numbers) who voted for the losing nominee?

    • #157
  8. Xennady Member
    Xennady
    @

    I lost any interest in anything Romney had to say after his pitiful failed effort to defeat Barry Obama in 2012.

    It seems to me if you want to start defeating the left the party needs to do something different than what Romney did, and what McCain did, and what Bush did, and so on.

    It further seems to me that the party has become completely indifferent to its relentless failure- so much so that it doesn’t even seem to notice how thoroughly it has failed.

    When a failed former nominee goes out and gives an attack speech aimed at the guy who has brought yuuge numbers of disaffected voters out and voting for a Republican- well, something has gone seriously wrong.

    I have repeatedly noted that I support Trump and will vote for him- but I have also stated that Trump is a terrible candidate. The yuuge flaws are obvious.

    But he’s leading the field. That should tell the establishment something about how popular the steely principles we all get lectured about really are with the public.

    It won’t. The party is incapable of learning, or adjusting to changed circumstances, or even making a good political argument for the policies and principles it supposedly has, because- at this point who cares?

    Reagan won a 49-state landslide. Bush was barely able to win re-election. Romney lost. Rubio can’t even win the nomination.

    See the problem, gop?

    Of course not.

    It’s Trump, awful Trump!!

    • #158
  9. Sheila S. Inactive
    Sheila S.
    @SheilaS

    I wasn’t going to watch the speech, but I am glad I did. He did a really good job of dismantling Trump. I don’t recall seeing him speak this aggressively against Obama in 2012.

    Will it change anything? Doubtful.

    Many of the people voting for Trump are likely the same people who stayed home in 2012 because they didn’t like Romney as the candidate, or who, if they didn’t stay home, held their noses while they voted.

    • #159
  10. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Xennady   The party is incapable of learning, or adjusting to changed circumstances, or even making a good political argument for the policies and principles it supposedly has, because- at this point who cares?

    Is Trump better capable than “the party” in articulating conservative policies and principles?  I really respect that you acknowledge that Trump is a terrible candidate, but I haven’t heard him do that.  I’ve heard both  Cruz and Rubio do it.

    • #160
  11. Lidens Cheng Member
    Lidens Cheng
    @LidensCheng

    MarciN:

    Romney did not speak for the Republican Party. No one “brought him out.”

    He spoke for himself.

    He might feel he needs to speak out, sure. But the point is Romney lost the election. In the eye of the voters, he’s a loser, and Trump is going use that fact. If you want to convince Trump’s supporters, Romney is not the right guy.

    Romney is such a nice and decent human being, I hate to see his name drag in the mud after this.

    Hoyacon:As an aside, is there any indication the present frontrunner has the support of 60m Americans (in 2012 numbers) who voted for the losing nominee?

    We haven’t gotten to November yet, have we?

    • #161
  12. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Lidens Cheng:

    He might feel he needs to speak out, sure. But the point is Romney lost the election. In the eye of the voters, he’s a loser, and Trump is going use that fact. If you want to convince Trump’s supporters, Romney is not the right guy.

    Why is it so apparently difficult to listen to what he said in determining whether he’s the right guy?  His words speak for themselves, and, while I’m not putting you in this category, the complete lack of content-based critiques of Romney from the Trump camp is embarrassing.

    Hoyacon:As an aside, is there any indication the present frontrunner has the support of 60m Americans (in 2012 numbers) who voted for the losing nominee?

    We haven’t gotten to November yet, have we?

    True dat. I’m open to any scenario in which Trump’s vote totals would exceed that of Romney’s against an incumbent President with the most sophisticated campaign operation in history.

    • #162
  13. Xennady Member
    Xennady
    @

    Hoyacon:Is Trump better capable than “the party” in articulating conservative policies and principles?

    It doesn’t even matter.

    The so-called conservative policies and principles beloved by the establishment- open borders, free trade, military adventurism- not only aren’t popular with the public but have also failed the nation.

    If they were not so Bush would not have left office as deeply unpopular as he did, and Jeb Bush might well now be on his way to becoming the nominee.

    Any rational political party will attempt to broaden its appeal by soft-pedaling its least popular positions, simply because it wants to win elections.

    The exception is the GOP, which has plainly sought to shoehorn Marco Rubio into the nomination, after Jeb Bush failed miserably, because it simply refuses to recognize that its beloved globalist priorities are not shared by most of the public.

    But it’s even worse, because the party- by sticking with the priorities of the so-called donor class- has essentially given up on the priorities of the base. We’ve noticed.

    Reagan was willing implement tariffs, and engineered the Plaza accord to stop the value of the dollar from rising so much that it priced American labor out of the world market- but the GOP today will have none of that, and instead lectures the unemployed about how awesome it is that they get cheap consumer goods from China.

    Hence, Trump.

    • #163
  14. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Xennady:

    Hoyacon:Is Trump better capable than “the party” in articulating conservative policies and principles?

    It doesn’t even matter.

    I hear the rest . . . more than thoughtful–like to see more of this here.

    • #164
  15. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    One more thought on Romney’s speech today: If Trump is, in fact, a runaway train and gets the nomination, this will give the Democrats additional ammunition. I think it might have been more appropriate for Romney to have expressed his concerns far earlier. At this stage in the race, I would have preferred to hear him endorsing any of the others, not criticizing the likely candidate.

    • #165
  16. Z in MT Member
    Z in MT
    @ZinMT

    Trump supporters you don’t get it. Trump doesn’t care about you or this country. Trump is only interested in one thing getting elected. If Trump actually wins the Presidency he will be the proverbial dog that catches the car, he won’t know what to do with it.

    • #166
  17. Klaatu Inactive
    Klaatu
    @Klaatu

    … it simply refuses to recognize that its beloved globalist priorities are not shared by most of the public.

    Evidence for this is?

    But it’s even worse, because the party- by sticking with the priorities of the so-called donor class- has essentially given up on the priorities of the base. We’ve noticed.

    Again, where is the evidence the issues you refer to, trade and immigration, are the base’s priorities? I never see trade or immigration rank high in any poll questioning voters about their most important issues.

    • #167
  18. Guruforhire Inactive
    Guruforhire
    @Guruforhire

    This just in:

    Notorious dishonorable phony and serial failure with unbelievable hair goes on TV and accuses someone else of being a dishonorable phony, serial failure with unbelievable hair.

    News at 11

    • #168
  19. Larry3435 Inactive
    Larry3435
    @Larry3435

    EThompson: One more thought on Romney’s speech today: If Trump is, in fact, a runaway train and gets the nomination, this will give the Democrats additional ammunition.

    If Trump gets the nomination, the Democrats won’t need any additional ammunition.  I think the best we can hope for is that all of the #NeverTrump Republicans who go over to Hillary will drag her a bit to the right.  And that all of the “new people” who Trump has brought into the Party go back to giving wrong answers to simple questions on Water’s World, and not screw up future Republican primaries.

    • #169
  20. Klaatu Inactive
    Klaatu
    @Klaatu

    Notorious dishonorable phony and serial failure …

    There are many words one can use to describe Mitt Romney but dishonorable and failure are not among them.

    • #170
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