Last night I was cleaning out email, and ran across this item from last week.
Actually, technically, it’s from 2002. In the clip, Mitt Romney assures Massachusetts voters, “My views are progressive.” And you know, at the moment, it may have been true.
In any case, you may have noticed he doesn’t say that much any more, for some reason.
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And all the people said, “Yes! We will vote for a competent president regardless of the party label.”
Next.
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Brad — please stop trying to tar Governor Romney with Haley/Healey.
Subtle. >>>Not<<<
The baggage carried by the GOP candidates for POTUS would fill a Samsonite warehouse to the brim. Romney has not been able to shake the flip-flopper image and he’s becoming increasing testy about it. It really is disturbing to see someone change so drastically over the years. I’m someone who has defended politicians for having the courage to change their minds when presented with new evidence or simply because they have a change of heart. I’ve certainly changed my mind a time or 2 over the years. But Romney is a special case. He changes so often and so dramatically about just about everything it’s hard to figure out what his core convictions really are.
Newt Gingrich may actually be crazy in a clinical sense. The man scares me more than any other candidate.
Ron Paul scares me for a different reason. He sticks with his discredited libertarian philosophy no matter what. His rigid approach to dealing with every problem is not a quality that would serve a president well.
As for the others (except for Jon Huntsman), well, they are just so extreme in their full embrace of the so-called “conservative” philosophy of governing that I could never pull the lever for any of them.
At the end of the day if I vote at all next month I’ll pull the lever for Jon Huntsman. He’s the only guy that doesn’t completely scare the bejeebers out of me in that sorry field of fools. Since I’ve helped pay for I guess I may as well take advantage of the opportunity.
Latest Horserace odds:
Romney – Even
Gingrich – 4-1
Paul – 5-1
Bachmann 8-1
Santorum 8-1
Perry 8-1
Huntsman 10-1
The Republican primary is a waste of time this year. Barring a surge in the unemployment rate, or another severe market swoon, Obama’s got 2012 wrapped up in a nice, fancy box with a bow on it.
The Mitt was so progressive for SC!
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/19/392420/under-romney-bain-capital-made-millions-off-of-south-carolina-business-that-shut-down-laid-off-150-workers/
@ Mab– I’m confused by what you said. Haley did endorse Romney and Romney did not repudiate it, so are they not birds of a feather, to be tarred with abandon?
‘Kathryn —
Heck no. Can you imagine the uproar if Governor Romney had declined the endorsement (as he should have)? He’s not a bomb thrower, you know.
I’m just so thankful that I don’t have to know what true progressives are anymore. It means good things when ~Mitt Romney~ says it.
I’m voting for Gingrich. I fervently hope is that he gets the nomination, and the GOP loses so badly across the board in the fall that either the party reforms itself closer to the center looking for a sane savior like Huntsman in 2016, or that a new centrist-conservative party (something like the former GOP) emerges from the wreckage and that the current version of the Republican party sort of sinks into actual third-party status.
And if Gingrich actually gets elected President? Well, that makes it easy, too, in that it will tell me that my country has finally gone over the cliff…and time to move to Canada, or my long-planned ultimate escape plan.
Phillip, if your strategy is to vote for the biggest loon to help the republican party sink itself, I’d go with Bachman or Paul. The possibility of Gingrich is a little too real and a little too scary to help along, in my opinion. I prefer to try and help make the two ultimate choices as palatable as possible, so I’ll be voting for Huntsman, even though my vote sometimes is the kiss of death for a campaign.
I’m with Scout and bud on this. Jon Huntsman gets my vote. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people vote for him, we’ll have a competitive election in 2012 and the issues will actually be discussed.
I’m not holding my breath…
I’d rather not play dice with our country’s leadership. Huntsman will have my vote. The State published a very convincing article that he would make the best President out of all the Republican candidates.
So people are openly admitting that they will vote for a candidate they would never actually vote for President?
Are you that afraid of democracy – you know where the person who reflects the views of most of the voters wins?
If a Republican wins in 2012 it’s for one simple reason – the majority of the people are not satisfied with the performance of Obama in the past four years.
@ Doug Ross– I believe that it is entirely reasonable and ethical to vote whenever permitted, for the candidate who most reflects one’s beliefs. I would never vote for a spoiler. I want the strongest President, and if my first choice does not get elected, I’d certainly prefer Huntsman to Gingrich, Bachmann, Trump(!), Paul. In many elections, not in this country though, you get that sort of automatic run-off–where you vote for your first and second choices, and the winner is determined by some tabulation thereof. Entirely reasonable.
I think Phillip was just engaging in some épater le bourgeoisie….
I don’t see how any reasonable person would pass up a chance to choose the candidate he or she likes best, or dislikes least, at any opportunity that offers itself.
“Huntsman will have my vote.”
Huh??? Be careful scraping that Obama bumper sticker off your Prius, you don’t want to scratch the paint.
“I think Phillip was just engaging in some épater le bourgeoisie….”
Isn’t that illegal in SC?
But Phillip said he’d vote for Gingrich not because he wanted him to be President but because he wanted the Republican party to fail.
And none of those voting for Hunstman would vote for him over Obama.
I guarantee you that if there was a Democratic primary, all those pseudo-Republicans would be calling a similar practice of Republicans voting for whoever was up against Obama a racially motivated abomination.
That’s not at all true, Doug. The Republicans who are supporting Huntsman — who happen to correspond very closely to the ones who supported McCain, and Bush, and his father, and Reagan — are not going to vote for Obama in the general election.
Coincidentally, I was sitting between a couple of them on Christmas Eve. I was at the Episcopal Church on Wheat Street for a program, and Richard Quinn sat in front of me, and Mike Campbell was behind me. Both are backing Huntsman, and I think hell would probably freeze over before either backed Obama.
Uh, Brad, we’re talking about the Democrats like Phillip, Scout, and Kathryn who are suggesting they would vote in the Republican primary.
I am fairly certain there is no chance any of them would ever vote for a Republican, no matter how things go in the next 12 months. We could be in the midst of another recession and they’d still vote for four more years.
There would be a big problem with any Republican suggesting Republicans do the same thing against a Democrat.
Stick to your own candidate. If you are for Obama, you have no ethical reason to vote in the Republican primary. Only if you are TRULY considering voting for a Republican in November should you vote in the primary.
And wasn’t there a great conspiracy theory related to the Alvin Greene win – that Republicans had somehow crossed over to ensure a weak candidate won?
If you believed that even in the slightest, you are a hypocrite to vote for a Republican if you will never vote for him in November.
Hope you all remember this in 2016 when there will be a Democratic primary here. I will see if you all are okay with Republicans voting for the most conservative Democrat.
And here’s the key point – Huntsman will likely be done before he even gets to South Carolina. He will probably finish last in Iowa and no better than 5th in NH. He has no organization, no money.
If you want to really see a change in the Republican Party, Ron Paul’s your vote. He’s to the left of Obama on war and torture. But you would have to give up on the hope that the government could solve all your problems one day.
Christopher Buckley and Kathleen Parker, noted conservatives, backed Obama vs. McCain/Palin. I think a lot of voters pay attention to who is the opponent, or the opponent’s running mate, more than one might think….