WASHINGTON -- The attack on Mitt Romney was tough, even vicious.
As expressed at a now-infamous fundraiser in Florida, the Republican nominee's "ideology, pitting the 'makers' against the 'takers,' offers nothing," the writer said. "No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change."
"This approach involves a relentless reductionism," the writer argued Thursday in the Washington Post. "Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class."
It was perhaps the most thorough, full-throated denunciation of Romney this year -- and, of course, a conservative Republican wrote it.
The author, Michael Gerson, has impeccable right-wing bona fides: He worked at the Heritage Foundation, served Chuck Colson and Bob Dole, and was President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter.
On this 46th day before Election Day, the story is not the alleged disintegration of the Romney campaign team in Boston. Yes, there is a lot of infighting going on. "It's a shame to see it," said Hogan Gidley, who was Rick Santorum's campaign spokesman. "They're all trying to save themselves." Still, it looks like the band will stick together (and give each other bonuses) until what could be a bitter end in November.
The real story, the deeper story, is the flying apart of the modern GOP into its constituent but rivalrous pieces. The Romney campaign feels like the end of an era in the party, rather than the beginning of one, because there's no center and it cannot hold.
Gerson is just the latest Republican to unload on Romney for what he sees as the nominee's ineptitude, ignorance, confusion, apostasy -- or all four. Others include, in varying degrees, Peggy Noonan, Bill Kristol, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Joe Scarborough, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Frank Luntz, several GOP U.S. Senate candidates, and even Romney's campaign co-chair Tim Pawlenty, who quit that role to become a business lobbyist in Washington.
Behind the scenes, other figures -- from Karl Rove and Charlie Black to the advisers for some silent big-money donors -- are not only nervous about Romney's prospects but irritated at what he has done (or not done) for (or to) the party.
Granted, no political party is always neat, orderly and consistent. Since U.S. elections generally come down to just two parties, each has to be almost mind-bogglingly diverse, either ideologically or demographically or both, to amass a majority.
What it lacks in demographic diversity, the GOP makes up for in breadth of ideas and agendas. By my count, there are no less than seven ideological precincts within the party. Ronald Reagan and to some extent Bushes One and Two were able to hold those pieces and their antecedents together. Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008 could not. Can Romney? Doubtful.
He has two sub-crowds in his corner thus far: the big business/Wall Street group (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bankers who took government money and hate themselves for it, trust fund and hedge fund types) and the bombs-away neocons who want to vaporize Iran (led by the likes of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson). Both groups loathe President Barack Obama, but also seem to genuinely like, or at least vaguely admire, the former Massachusetts governor.
Romney is nowhere with -- or regarded suspiciously by -- the other five. The "compassionate conservative" types such as Gerson, moved by a sense of faith-based social obligation, distrust Romney in his current incarnation. Tea Party "small government" advocates distrust him because of his moderate, even expansionist view of the role of government when he ran Massachusetts. Fundamentalist and many evangelical Protestants, as well as many Catholics, remain wary of Romney because of his Mormon faith, although they rarely say so publicly in so many words.
The xenophobic elements within the party -- the anti-immigration crowd, those who fear the "they" (minorities) of America -- might respond to the resentful Mitt of the secret fundraiser video. But Romney is no firebrand, and he has backed away from the more incendiary implications of his Florida comments.
The last piece of the GOP puzzle is the one that should like Romney the most, yet actually has never had faith him: the money people and elected officials in New York and Washington. They just want a winner, but they simply don't think much of his candidate skills, and they're technocratic types above all. Their house organ is the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which has repeatedly expressed exasperation at how Mitt has run his campaign. While his Boston-based crew has ties to the Washington Republican establishment, they really aren't part of it.
"We saw the party starting to come apart in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party," said Gidley. "This isn't anything of Mitt Romney's making."
Perhaps not, but unlike Reagan or even the Bushes, Romney so far has not shown the candidate skills, the depth of thought or the ideological commitment that would give him the strength to bind the party into one force.
At a campaign event on Thursday, Ann Romney expressed her frustration at the carping from Republicans and other conservatives. "Stop it!" she commanded on an Iowa radio show. "This is hard. You want to try it? You get in the ring."
Well, they are, but not necessarily to promote her husband.
It would, of course, help if he were ahead in the race. But he is not, and time is running out.
For Howard Fineman's full 2012 Countdown, click here.
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Abby Huntsman: Opportunity Lost
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
really good people,
a central theme,
a core of fundamental beliefs, and
an unassailable set of virtues which contribute to the formation of his persona.
You just haven't given him enough time to get all of that to the point where he can tell America the details about policies that help 100% of Americans.
Wait till after the election he'll show and tell you.
Most of the Paul voters have or will migrate to Gary Johnson. I think that for everyone who believes it would be better for the country if we got Obama out of office, Johnson is the only one capable of doing that at this point. Gary can donsomething Romney NEVER will. Gary will draw many of those "Obama is the lessor of two evils" voters to his column. And besides, America does love an underdog.
We are in the ring, lady.
We who go to work every day and worry that we can't pay all our bills. We who send our children to college in the hope that when they graduate, there will be work for them.
We who care for elderly parents and spouses and children who are too ill to care for themselves so they won't be a burden on the national coffers.
We who are called slackers because the likes of your husband outsourced our jobs to countries that comfort our enemies.
We who served and still serve our country in the military at home and abroad.
We who paved the road for women to get decent jobs and are now retired and living near poverty because we cared more about our families and our nation than we did about ourselves.
We climb into that ring every day and we deserve better than the man you live with to guide, direct and protect us. We deserve someone who sees us when he looks in the mirror, not a narcissist on his way to deification.
However, a few words to Mrs. Romney: A little thin-skinned are we? Frankly, your comment begs the question: why do "you people" want to be President and First Lady? It is obvious from your husband's commentary and your comments, you truly believe you are above the masses. Why not just take your money and your condenscion and go home?
After mitt lost in 2008, she was the one who pushed her husband to run again.
...right before any election.
And then, after the election....?
Uh, duh....
The GOP author of this sounds shocked. What a load. This has been JOB 1 of the Banana Republicans since Lee Atwater.
All of a sudden - from this to Noonan (in her endless diatribes against humanity) to Scott Brown, to all the Banana Republicans "running away" from RMoney - the Banana Republicans are getting all progressivey and expressing dismay at this "new" open cynicism of the electorate?
How long has Ryan been in congress? How long has he been getting props from these otherwise-admiring lovers of Rand for his "serious" approach to our problems? Remember "Welfar queens"? How long has ALEC been a known entity?
Fact is, they are just panicking because somebody turned on the lights and we saw them all scurrying for cover.
Since when have ANY of their kind expressed one word of regret about the roaring freight train of treachery and nihilism that is today's Banana Republicans?
Give me a BREAK.
"Mitt (if elected) won't be running any country. As Grover Norquest has stated. "WE just need someone that can sign the documents and bills put on the presidents desk. No more no less".
So running a campaign has nothing to do with Willard running a country.See all your worries are solved with the Norquest statement."
Are you kidding me? Mitt is just a toned down version of the crazy GOP Primary audiences who cheered for people to die if they didn't have health insurance.
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/obamas-spending-inferno-or-not/
Slow but steady job growth in the past 30 months or so after the nation bleeds 750K jobs/month upon taking office.
Manufacturing increasing slowly but steadily.
The stock market is twice what it was when he took office, which means 401k retirement plans are thriving.
GM & Chrysler are not only still producing new cars but the sales of those cars have reached record proportions and more than a million folk still have jobs, pay their mortgages, can afford to feed & educate their children.
College students no longer getting screwed by lenders on student loans.
The troops out of Iraq and is on target to get them out of Afghanistan.
He has made the Al Qaeda #2 man the shortest duration job in the world.
Osama bin Laden sleeps with the fishes.
All of this he has accomplished without the support of the obstructionists that are the republican party of the present time.
Now I understand that you will not vote for him, that is, of course your right. I also realize that you don't like him, that's OK to because whether you like him or not, vote for him or not, he will still work for us AND you too because unlike the poster boy for dysfunctional campaigning style, he cares about 100% of the people. So I give you all this but please be honest with yourself and stop posting such patently false and easily disproved nonsense as fact. The truth will set you
Sadly, from what I have seen/read, especially more recently, it appears that Mitt Romney is 'unsafe at any speed.' The team advice to Romney is backfiring. The tires have come off the campaign. My opinion: this Mitt don't fit. Romney is not presidential, and having a man of Ryan's character is, quite frankly, scary as the #2.